Technology), to complement the work that I am doing in the classroom. ICT is used every
single day by your child for educational and social purposes, so it is important that everyone
knows how it can and should be used. As parents, you have a responsibility to monitor and
assist your child in navigating the online world in a safe and effective manner, and as their
educator, I have the responsibility to help.
In my own research into this area, I found a statistic on eSafety stating that just 60% of
parents see risk in being online. Please don’t be in that 40%. There are risks, and it is
important to be aware of them.
While there are many different aspects of ICT to be aware of, I am going to focus on just
three today, as these are the ones your children are working on in class.
1. Understand the need for basic safety rules.
This includes you and your child simply understanding that the online world is a complicated
place. False anonymity, predators, instant messages and unwanted content are just some of
the factors that can produce risk in the online world. Although it is impossible to protect
children from everything, simply having an understanding ourselves gives our young people
better protection. Just as you may have rules about your children eating too many sweets or
being out with friends, the online world need rules too.
As a parent, having regular conversations with your child about their online experience is the
best advice I can give you. Try to keep an ongoing, open discussion about their online life;
ensure that they feel comfortable in talking to you without feeling judged or monitored, by
withholding from seriously critical dialogue unless you feel that someone is at risk.
2. Follow social protocols and guidelines when using ICT.
Just like the real world, the online world includes social expectations. It is a generally known
rule that once something is posted, it will never go away. This is absolutely true, and
students must consider that some real-world social interactions work very differently than
online. For example, communicating with someone on a regular basis online does not mean
that you have a true understanding of who they are. Also, because online communication
excludes inflection and occasionally context, meaning can be misunderstood, which can lead
to harmful interactions, or even cyber bullying.
For you, although smartphones are making it increasingly difficult for parents to monitor their
child’s online behaviour, having a ‘computer space’ in the house can help. This might be a
single desktop computer in the living area or dining room, or a designated computer station
for the children to use while online. This will not only help you in monitoring how they use
their online time, but also see how much time they spending online.
Moreover, if you seek further control, you can enable ‘Safe Mode’ on YouTube and engage
with other restricted online access even on your home system. Please feel free to email me
or attend the ICT information night to learn more about this.
3. Act responsibly by caring for personal identity and others’ identities and personal
information.
Shared personal information can be a particular risk on social media; where sites like
Facebook prompt users to upload more and more personal information. This information can
be used by advertising companies, scammers or predators to identify and locate your child.
Simply adding a hometown can be enough information for a predator to speculate which
school your child may attend, and adding interests or hobbies will notify companies with
what items your child might like to purchase.
To combat this, simply be conscious of how much personal information your child has online,
and discuss with them the necessity of caution. You may consider rules such as: no
mobile numbers or addresses outside of the capital city, or always include pictures with other
people (this reduces people’s ability to immediately recognise your child among the faces of
their friends or family).
However, just as your child may be at risk of disclosing information about themselves, they
may be at risk of exposing other people’s information, including other young people. By
posting an image of their friends, or ‘tagging’ a friend in a post including their location, they
are potentially doing harm to this friend, or acting against the preferences of this friend or
their parents.
Keep in mind that posting unwanted or compromising information about other people is
potentially a legal issue, and certainly cyber-bullying. Your child will be made aware of this
during class, however it is important for you to understand the seriousness of cyber-
offences, as some serious cases can require police involvement.
Although it is my job to ensure that you and your children are informed about the dangers of
the online world, my intention is not to overwhelm you. The internet is a fantastic resource, so long as we know how to use it. If you feel that you need more information, here are some wonderful online resources (see, the internet can be good too!) to check out:
- Google - Be Internet Awesome.
This is a resource we are using in class, so please feel free to check it out for yourself!
https://beinternetawesome.withgoogle.com/
- eSafety.
This is a government website, abundant with resources and information for parents
including statistics and strategies about online usage.
https://www.esafety.gov.au/
- Get Safe Online
This includes information about specific age groups, and explains identity theft, cyber
bullying, sexting and more in detail. This may be a great starting point if you are new
to this information.
https://www.getsafeonline.org/safeguarding-children/
Another good starting place, particularly if you want to know how to make Google
searching safer.
http://www.google.com.au/safetycenter/families/start/
I hope you have found this helpful information, please contact me with the details on the
school website if you need clarification or have any comments or questions.
Miss Nicole Sleep
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