The Cyber Safety Project
By Claire Melloy – Assistant Principal, Students, and
Zanele Ramsay Daniel – Secondary School Administrator, Students
One of the issues families often seek advice on is how to help their young people manage device use and, more specifically, how to keep safe online.
We view this as a community issue and it is important to remember that we all have a role to play – educators, carers and young people. As a result, the Heads of Year in the Secondary School recently attended a presentation from the Cyber Safety Project on how we as educators can help. The Cyber Safety Project will be presenting to our students later in the year and early next year.
Website: https://cybersafetyproject.com.au/
“The Cyber Safety Project’s mission is to provide a whole community approach focused on developing future skills, lifelong habits and self-regulation when innovating and using digital technologies for work, life and play. To create safer communities our educational programs and proactive teaching strategies will engage the whole community with learning how to participate safety and responsibly in a digitally engaged world.”
We know of several cases of young people, in their bedrooms at home, thinking they were talking online to someone their own age – using webcam and sending pictures and then finding out that the person was not who they thought they were.
Being technologically savvy is not enough – we need to help our young people be socially aware and use their common sense.
What do young people say?
The Cyber Safety Project surveyed thousands of young people in Years 7–12 around the country and found the following:
- Some young people still put last name and address in when signing up to social media accounts. It is important to teach them what is required (fields with an asterisk only).
- 2 in 3 young people will reach out to a friend first if they’re having issues online. Young people need to be equipped as the first responders. Usually, young people are worried about getting into trouble or stigma.
- 34% of young people stayed friends with someone they have only connected with online.
- 10–15% of students have social media accounts set to “public”.
- 1 in 10 have 500+ followers on Instagram.
- 36% of content viewed by young people is hurtful or inappropriate.
- 44% felt sad or poorly about themselves after checking social media.
If your young person ever finds themselves the victim of cyberbullying, grooming or a scam, the following may assist in the reporting process.
Key steps to reporting
1. Stop communication
- Do not alert the perpetrator that you are aware (e.g. parents should not contact them)
- Do not remove apps or profiles
- Print chat logs
- Take screenshots with usernames
- Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation – child abuse material, grooming, sexual exploitation
- https://www.esafety.gov.au/ – cyberbullying, image abuse
- https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/ – online scams
New powers were given to the eSafety Commissioner as part of the wide-ranging Online Safety Act which passed in 2021. Under new laws, social media companies and other websites will be compelled to remove content deemed to be bullying within 24 hours or face significant fines.
Common terms
The Cyber Safety Project highlighted some common terms that may be helpful to parents.
- X-PRO II – one of top filters on Instagram
- Streaks on Snapchat (get rewards and points for continuous photo sharing) – young people are giving friends passwords to keep their streak going. This can put the young person at risk (i.e. the friend could change password, pose as the person, etc.)
- CD9 (a gaming term meaning ‘parent in room’) – also POS, etc.
- Finsta (a fake Instagram account for parents)
Other things to be aware of
- Be Real
Every day at a different time everyone is notified simultaneously to capture and share a photo in two minutes. This app uses the back and front cameras simultaneously. - TikTok
TikTok’s ‘For You’ feed is trying to keep young people online for longer. - Trends
These can be very dangerous – an example is the ‘hold challenge’. - Instagram
It’s possible to learn a lot about a person through what they share on Instagram, e.g. that a student is at a certain basketball court every Friday. Increasing numbers of boys aged 13–17 are being tricked into believing they’re talking to a girl / someone they would want to talk to. We saw an example of someone being able to threaten coming to a student’s location – i.e. that basketball court – if they didn’t send a naked photo, then blackmailing them with that photo for credit card details. - SnapMaps
These give away an exact location if not in "ghost mode". They can even give direct Google Maps directions on how to get there and how long it would take to do so. It’s possible to zoom in to almost see a young person’s precise location.
Things are changing all the time in this space. The eSafety website is a great place to find more information about a particular app or trend.
Online gaming
Some things to be aware of:
- Young people are often playing with older people who may be inappropriate or abusive, and the games are often violent (we were showed a viral TikTok of an older person verbally abusing a child/young teen they were playing with, as being hopeless but with ruder terms).
- Parents can be unaware that there are different versions of Minecraft e.g. Education, on different servers.
- Roblox is an online game platform and an online game creation system that allows users to program games and play games created by other users. It is safest to turn off user-generated games.
- Battle Royale games, such as Fortnite, are most popular with teenagers.
- “A battle royale game is an online multiplayer video game genre that blends last-man-standing gameplay with the survival, exploration and scavenging elements of a survival game. Battle royale games involve dozens to hundreds of players, who start with minimal equipment and then must eliminate all other opponents while avoiding being trapped outside of a shrinking "safe area", with the winner being the last player or team alive.” — Wikipedia
- There are reports of mal intent across all popular battle royale games.
- Most are M or MA rated.
- These are highly addictive, with gambling elements (loot boxes) – a form of operant conditioning.
- Microtransactions – 12 of the top 15 free game apps have microtransactions, which means they are advertised as free but charge once users are playing.
Some final points
- It is important to empower young people to manage their technology use, by making them aware/knowledgeable.
- Be aware of conditioning when using social media apps where young people are positively reinforced by likes and negatively reinforced by no likes.
- TikTok tracks user activity (including the time a user posts) and then uses that information to send notifications at those times.
- Empower young people to be able to respond when their friends come to them – make what to do next obvious, i.e. who to go to, how to report, eSafety self-reporting, Kids Helpline.
Cyber safety and digital wellbeing concepts
- Create a safe space for trusted conversations
- Create a safe space online (use the concept of being an upstander)
- Think about who sees you online. What would they think?
- Inform to empower
- Most people curate their content so you only see their highlights reel – what fills your feed?
- Educate about help-seeking strategies
Further resources
School TV editions on Nexus
Screen Time
Internet Addiction
Social Media & Digital Reputation
Cyberbullying
Special Report: Fortnite
Online Pornography
Gambling
Sexting