Celebrating Children's Week

With Children’s Week around the corner (19-27 October 2024), we're encouraging parents, carers and other trusted adults to talk to your children about how to create, connect and explore the wonders of technology in a safe and appropriate way.

Here’s some ideas to get you started!

Read – Online safety picture book and song
Do – Story puzzles with Swoosh and Glide
Watch - Online safety Mighty Heroes video series

Talking about online risks with your kids

Some topics are hard to talk about, even with other adults. Discussing online safety and sexual abuse online with your child can be daunting and difficult. eSafety has published a suite of new resources to help guide conversations with your children about online safety.

Read – Tips for talking to 0 to 12 year old's and 13 to 18 year old's about child sexual abuse online
Watch – Videos on protecting children from child sexual abuse online
Listen – eSafety staff speak to the Fathering Project podcast about online safety.

Having conversations early and often is important. Talking regularly and openly with children about what they’re doing online, how it makes them feel and who they’re connecting with is one of the most effective ways to help protect them.

Free webinars for parents and carers

eSafety’s live webinars give parents and carers the knowledge, skills and tools to support their children to have safe online experiences.

Our Term 4 webinar dates are now online.

Supporting healthy tech use as your child transitions into high school

Tuesday, 29 October, 12.30 pm AEDT
Thursday, 28 November, 12.30 pm AEDT

eSafety 101: How eSafety can help

Thursday, 24 October, 12.30pm AEDT
Wednesday, 4 December, 12.30pm AEDT

eSafety's statement on the national age restrictions for digital platforms

There’s been a lot of discussion in the media lately about children’s use of social media and how age restrictions on digital platforms might work. As Australia’s online safety educator and regulator, we know that any approach needs to be evidence-based and nationally cohesive. We will continue working with stakeholders across government and the community to further refine Australia’s approach to online harms.

Instagram introduces teen accounts

Instagram has introduced new rules for teenagers meaning children under 17 now automatically have their accounts set to private and can’t be messaged or tagged by people they don’t follow.

Some of the other changes include:

Parents and carers can set daily time limits on Instagram use
Teens get notified to leave the app after 60 minutes each day
Parents and carers can see the accounts their children message and the content categories they view
Hidden Words settings automatically hide unwanted comments and messages

The new Teen Accounts are a step in the right direction, but they still put the onus on parents and carers to understand parental supervision settings. Tech companies must take responsibility for safety on their platforms and services – the burden should never fall solely on the user. And that’s particularly true when it comes to younger users. Take the opportunity to have a conversation with the young people in your home about how they feel about the changes, and if they notice a difference to their online experience.

Free online learning for grandparents

Grandparents Day is 27 October! If you know a grandparent wanting to increase their online knowledge, including how to spot scams and download useful apps, eSafety has a number of programs to support older Australians. Digital skills can help bridge generational divides so help the grandparents in your family stay safe online with eSafety’s Be Connected program.

Grade 5 Discovery

Mary MacKillop Catholic College