I.T. News

CYBER SAFETY

Cybersafety @ COHR

COHR has an Instagram account.  This social media account is to promote our school to our families and the wider community.  It is a public account and at this stage we are not posting any student’s faces on our posts. Many of our posts will be students in groups with the back of their heads in view. We will be sending out an extra photo permission form to the one sent out at the beginning of the year as we had not itemised Instagram and the allowance of photos to be used in this online app.

Cyber Safety in classes.

Week 9 Digital Technology classes with Mrs Torissi will focus on continuing to be safe, responsible and respectful online users.  Student lessons may involve picture story books to initiate discussions, scenarios to role play and discuss, videos to promote understanding and real life situations which will help students to discover the importance of being good digital citizens. 

Cyber Safety at Home

Last year we held a Cybersafety evening for parents.  The presentation provided many important tips and tricks in helping keep children safe in an online environment and  informing and empowering parents on the technical and psychological side of cybersafety.  As a parent, your ability to set limitations, provide guidance and help, as well as supporting your child to gain confidence to ask for advice and help are all very important. Children need to be equipped with the tools to manage risks associated with being online. 

Most of our students have access to at least one, if not more devices which have access to the internet, whether it be a smartphone, Chromebook, home computer, smart T.V., gaming console or iPad. Therefore the importance of staying safe online is crucial.

Three important issues presented to us on the night is the age limit for many of the social apps/ games, especially the Tik Tok app and the importance of not having access to the internet in bedrooms.

The age to create accounts is 13 & over; Lying online = Lying. 

Tik Tok (Musical.ly) - is an app that primary students should not have - to put it bluntly, this app is full of predators/ pornography!

Internet not to be accessed in bedrooms, to be supervised at all times.

We know we have students that have signed up to these apps / games -  Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok, You Tube, Twitch, Likee, Funimate, Clash of Clans. Students have told us about some cybersafety issues they have had. As parents, have you read the privacy settings, have you read the parent guides? Have you set parental controls on devices? We strongly advise that you communicate, supervise and set boundaries with your children.  Slides from the Cyber Safety presentation can be found here, outlining how to access parent guides and what controls you can set. These slides are updated regularly. bit.ly/cyberparenting

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner provides many tools and excellent advice to parents for protecting your children online. Common Sense Media is another informative site for online behaviour - sign up to the parent blog.

As the holidays and possible school closure are imminent, there probably will be more screen time happening, it is a timely reminder for all of us to be vigilant with the cybersafety of  our children. The most important path a parent can take is to be involved. Explore the internet together, find out what games and websites your children enjoy and get to know their friends both online and offline. 

Thank You,   Karen Wakeling & Georgina Torissi