Today we had a representative from ACMA with us all day. During this day we had sessions on CyberSafety for two groups of students, teacher and parents. Below is a brief summary of the session and I will follow this up with an additional blog with an increased number of links and images.
Things that were covered in this session for parents:
1. Technology risks and what’s trending
2. Protecting identity and reputation
3. Cyberbullying – reporting and advice
4. Gaming
5. Cybersmart Resources for parents/carers and families
TRENDING
- Younger children are engaging with technology all the time
- Number of devices kids are engaging with
- It used to be that we had one computer in a household and each person in the family were rostered on
- Now, children have access to more devices
- An increasing number of mobile devices with younger siblings receiving the ones that are replaced
- Facebook has been replaced with other forms of social media for younger users. Instagram is one. Instagram is actually 13+ but many younger users are accessing it and they have little understanding of the security aspects of it. Another is Snapchat. A further one is Kik (17+). YouTube and Vine are video sharing sites that are trending – with Vine allowing people to post shorter type videos.
Point made that it is worth discussing the benefits and risks with your child when the topic of them using social media is raised. Rather than banning or blocking, it is best to have these conversations.
- Upon looking in your child’s folders on iPads – be aware that some children will name folders ‘school work’ when they are anything but school work!
- There are some calculator apps that are actually secret ‘vaults’.
Having conversations with your child/children is essential!
- Teach your children coping skills – how to block, ignore and report
- Talk about technology when it is appropriate – having dinner or in the car
- Bring up one or more of these apps in conversation.
- Help your children work out the dangers.
Using Social Media
- Be aware of hashtags as they can often circumnavigate privacy settings
- Turn off location services in settings to each app that uses location services as these can be used by people to find out locations attached to photos that are uploaded to social media.
- Important to start talking to kids now about how their posts and uploads create a personna that is forever attached to them.
- It is important that children are aware that a positive digital footprint is very important and more important than having no digital footprint. ie, future employers will actively look for social media evidence – having nothing will just make employers suspicious and they will dig deeper.
- Privacy settings in Facebook are essential to use. Be aware of ‘friends of friends’.
- Have conversations about age appropriate behaviour.
CyberBullying
- Facebook has guidelines for blocking users who are bullying.
- We don’t expect primary students to stand up to bullies. We do expect them to support friends who are victims of bullies. We do expect them to tell an adult.
- Advice –
- make sure kids know how to stop and block
- make sure they know how to report abuse
- make sure they know how to block on the phone
- make sure they know how to screen capture evidence.
Restrictions on Devices
- all the topics covered in our school based Oakleigh State School sessions are relevant here.
Key Questions for parents to ponder:
Who’s in charge?
What behaviour are you modelling?
Where’s the technology?
Where’s the dialogue?
How’s the balance?
Family Agreement – time limits, what you can post, number of friends, location of devices?
Link for further information: