Unfortunately this week’s Parent Session based on Cybersafety had to be rescheduled due to border closures. We are hoping to soon announce the new date that Susan McLean will be available to present to the families of Unley PS and Parkside PS.
In the meantime, Susan has a range of resources and videos for parents on her website which you can access here. One such video is based on her ten top tips for keeping children safe online. Below is an outline of those tips.
- Number one, get devices out of bedrooms and bathrooms. No matter how good a parent you are, you can’t supervise in a bedroom and a bathroom.
- Have a set of rules, you have rules about acceptable behavior in real life. Make sure those rules extend online. So an online family contract about expectations of use is important.
- Know your children’s passcodes and passwords. That is not invading their privacy, that’s being a parent. Make sure that you can, if necessary, get into their accounts if something has gone wrong.
- Talk early. Talk often. The earlier you start, the better. But it is never too late to start. Let your children know that no matter what they can come to you.
- Use some sort of filtering. Please understand the Internet is a very adult world. It does not come segmented into age appropriate areas, so you need some sort of filtering to help make sure that your children are not exposed to inappropriate, explicit or illegal content.
- Learn to say no. It’s a very important word, and it’s one, sadly, that a lot of parents don’t use. They’re too worried about upsetting their child or having their child not like them. It’s not your job to be liked by your children. Your children will love and respect you for saying, no.
- Learn about the apps that they use, be there with them, download them, look at them, play with them. Have an appreciation of what the app is, what it does, and how to best protect your children when they use those apps.
- Use security and privacy settings. Some apps have really good privacy and security, some not so. But if you’re not using them, it’s like the bike helmet. If it’s not on your head when you fall off, it’s not going to protect you.
- Make sure that you limit their online communications to people they know and trust in real life. This isn’t going to remove risk, but it’s going to reduce risk. And that’s all we can hope to do. You cannot remove risk if a child is going online. So what we have to do is identify the risk, minimize and manage it. So unless I know them in real life and I mean really know them, not a friend of a friend. They shouldn’t be hanging out with them online.
- Know where your child is online, just as the same as would in the real world. Know where they’re going, know what they’re doing. and make sure you regularly check in with them. As I said, being an active and involved participant in your child’s online world is the best protective factor that they have. Do not be afraid of technology. It’s not going to harm you if you use it well.
We look forward to announcing a new date for the parent information session soon, so please keep an eye out for communications.