From the Deputy Principal

Cyber Safety for our Young People

As parents and carers and teachers of our young people in this technological world, we experience challenges in supporting our children and students in ways never before imagined. There are of course, many benefits of technology and I am sure our young people would be able to quickly recount many of these. The difficulty for us is supporting them to be safe in an online world where they are often more technologically savvy than us!

Here at Moama Anglican Grammar, we take the responsibility of educating the whole person very seriously. Education is not just about curriculum, so giving our students (and their families) information and skills to keep our young people safe, whether it be online or otherwise, is an important part of our role.

Just today we had a presentation from ThinkUKnow (see https://www.thinkuknow.org.au/resources-tab/parents-and-carers ). Members of the NSW Police spoke to our Year 5, 6, 7, 9 and 10 students about many ways to keep safe online and what to do if they find themselves in a difficult online situation. Below are a number of pieces of good advice that came out of the presentation. I have also included a few more from a similar article I wrote in one of our Newsletters last year and there is more information from our Wellbeing Team later in this Newsletter:

Be AWARE when posting online:

Is it Appropriate? Would you be ok for this post to be on the front page of The Age newspaper?
Who can see it? What are your privacy settings, keeping in mind that every time an APP is downloaded onto a device, the privacy settings may have changed without you realising it.
Is it Accurate? Are you misleading others with your post?
Is it Respectful to others? What emotion are you feeling as your write your post? Take time out to think carefully before posting if feeling angry.
What could the Environment of the post (if a photo) reveal? Is someone else in the background that you have not asked permission to share their picture? Does the background indicate where you live, go to school or work?

All parents and carers should know the passwords of their child’s devices and check their child’s devices regularly, particularly of young people under the age of 16.
Role modelling – parents and guardians are often the main role models in a child’s life. They watch what you do even when you don’t realise it. Therefore, it is so important that when it comes to technology, we role model what we want our children to do – how often are we scrolling through our phone while our children are having a conversation with us?
Find out which platforms your children are using and become familiar with what they do.
Instagram, Tik Tok and SnapChat are the most popular with young people but there are new APPs being developed all the time. Be aware of the latest.
Pick appropriate games for children who like gaming technology. The average age of gamers online is 34 years old. Make sure parameters are set within home technology so that children know who they are gaming with.
Recent research has found that the more children are involved with sporting activities the less screen time they choose.
School age children do not have a developed pre-frontal cortex in their brain yet so can find it difficult to self-regulate. Parents and Carers have to do this regulation for their child.
Algorithms are set in these platforms so that themes of posts young people look at most come up on their feed more often.
Children will often bring up concerns about social media to parents and guardians at the most inconvenient times. However, if young people bring up a topic of concern for them, we must be ready to listen and show that we are listening. These moments, to have supportive discussions, are significantly important.
Parents and guardians can create opportunities to problem solve with their young people. E.g. “I heard from another parent at school that some of the Year 8’s are …. how do you think they would be feeling…..what do you think should be done about it?”
Role model appropriate times to use technology. E.g. Parents and guardians should never text or call their children during school time. Instead, they can contact the school directly so that we can support students effectively. Conversely, parents and guardians should encourage their children to seek out a trusted teacher if they have concerns at school rather than texting or calling home during the school day.
Young people often casually share their passwords, to their phone or APPs, with their friends and need regular conversations (from both parents/carers and teachers) to be had about technology security and the pitfalls and possible consequences of doing this.
Most importantly – ABC:

Access – what content is your child(ren) looking at. Be familiar with how to set up parameters on your child’s technology so they can only access appropriate
content. Put parameters and boundaries around when they can and cannot
access technology in the home. Know their passwords.
Boundaries – clearly set by parents and guardians including firm “off times” in the evenings. Your child may tell you that you are “the only parent/guardian in the whole world to make me do this!”. This is not true. There will be many other parents and guardians setting boundaries for their children, but your child will not tell you about these.
Communicate openly with your children about the benefits and pitfalls of technology. Problem solve with your children social media dilemmas – ask key questions such as “how would you feel if you got that type of message/post?” etc.

Do not hesitate to contact the school if you have any queries or questions around cyber safety and your child. It is the joint and combined efforts of the School, students, parents and carers working together that works best in keeping our young people safe.

Mrs Kathleen Kemp

Deputy Principal