Inform and Empower Cyber Safety
Issue #1 2023
Hello St. Simon’s!.
The first Term of 2023 has been very busy and we are quickly approaching the Easter break!
This year we continue the termly Inform and Empower Cyber safety sessions to develop knowledge and confidence in making good choices when online.
One particular area that keeps coming up is the importance of balancing screen time with green time.
There are many beneficial reasons for spending time outside in nature as much as possible, with most of them involving improving physical and mental health.
With life being busy and on the go, it can certainly be challenging trying to get the balance right.
There are a number of ways to try and find the right balance for your family.
- Establishing a ‘green hour’ or setting aside time to go outside and enjoy the garden, a walk or some outdoor space.
- Creating a nature journal to place interesting things from outside to share and record.
- Provide some old objects (like old cooking pots, digging tools, buckets, etc and let their imaginations go wild
- Create a screen time vs green time chart and set up a reward system for everyone when there is more green time than screen time.
See the following links if you would like more information.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media is a great resource for media recommendations and reviews that has been operating for around 20 years now. It contains age-based reviews and recommendations for things like:
- Youtube
- Apps,
- Movies
- TV
- Books
- Games
- Podcasts.
*Note that it is U.S. based so it may omit some Aussie things.
eSafety Commissioner
Here is a reminder of the very useful website eSafety Commissioner which aims to protect Australian citizens online. It can be a useful place to go if you have questions or concerns while online.
It contains information about the recommended ages for different games and apps that you or your child/ren may come across.
All of this information was sourced from the ‘eSafety Commissioner Guide’.
https://www.esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide
This website also provides safety tips from each application/website, including how to maximise your privacy and block unwanted communications.
Fun fact: A number of games have parental controls or a restricted mode that can increase the safety of children to play on it.
For example, Roblox has different servers that can be created by other people with different themes and content, some of which may not be appropriate.
So you can enable restricted mode with the parental controls.
Or this
We would love to hear from you
As we delve more into certain topics surrounding eSafety, we would love to hear if there are any areas you would like to know more about or see addressed. To submit your input, please fill out the Google Form linked below:
Thank you.
Stay safe and have a great year!
The eSmart team.