23 Oct 2015
Help children to be cyber-smart
Social media use is common today in many people's lives. It can be a great way to stay in touch with friends and family. It also is also playing an increasingly important role in many workplaces. Businesses, corporations and other organisations now routinely use social media to promote their products or services, and also to seek feedback from clients and customers. An extension of this is that many workplaces now encourage employees to use social media networks as a way to collaborate and gain important information to assist them in effectively fulfilling their roles and responsibilities. In short, in this day and age it serves young people well to be informed, active, safe and responsible users of social media.
Cyber-safety is part of the curriculum is now and taught at school. However, for parents and teachers, concerning matters still arise from time to time to indicate inappropriate social media use by young people. This can be both a disciplinary matter at school and a legal matter involving the police.
It is therefore important that all students and their parents know and understand that inappropriate social media use can fall under criminal laws. In NSW, the relevant information on the Australian Government's e-safety website indicates that this particularly relates to social media use that takes the following forms: stalking or intimidation with intent to cause fear of physical or mental harm; sending or delivering a document containing threats to kill or inflict bodily harm; assaulting, stalking, harassing, intimidating fellow students while attending a school; common assault.
A wellbeing priority for our young people must be to ensure that they are not participating in inappropriate social media use and that they are not being subject to it by others. It is very important that schools and parents work closely in partnership to support young people in this regard. Schools may also work closely with the police in support of young people.
State and Federal police and Commonwealth authorities have power under section 313 of the Telecommunications Act which they may be able to use to help have material removed from some types of communications services, if having the material removed is for the purposes of enforcing the criminal law.
Please contact the school and the relevant authorities in a timely manner should you ever have any concerns about social media messages your child is receiving or accessing. We are very willing to help parents in the process of having social media messages and inappropriate social media pages and posts removed. Please also monitor your child's social media use to ensure that it is safe, responsible and legal.
The Australian Government ‘s Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner offers great support for and information for parents and young people.
https://www.esafety.gov.au/esafety-information/esafety-issues