eSmart News
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
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.
Social Media Safety
Parents and carers play an important role in supporting their children to be safe online and on social media. You can help your children safely navigate their digital world and educate them to avoid harmful online experiences. You can explore websites, games, apps and social media together and set some rules and boundaries.
Your support and guidance can give your children the knowledge to make sound decisions online and confidence to ask for help when they need it. It is also important to stay informed about online safety.
The Department of Education recognises this important issue and has developed fact sheets about supports to help keep students safe online and what to do if they are involved in an online incident.
The fact sheets contain links to evidence-based information on supporting positive and safe online experiences, signs a child or young person might need support, what to do if something unsafe happens online, and where to reach out to for more support.
To access the fact sheets, refer to the Safe Socials webpage. The fact sheets are available in 19 community languages.
The government is also launching public consultation on age limits for social media.
You and your children can share your experiences to inform proposed changes via an online survey, before 5.00pm on Friday 1 November 2024. For more information on the survey and to take part, refer to Proposed changes to social media age limits on the Engage Victoria website.
If you have any queries about this information, you can contact the department by email: bullystoppers@education.vic.gov.au