LODDON MALLEE - Cyber Safe Kids

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Cybersafe Survey covered a wide range of behaviours, attitudes, experiences and concerns
about children and young people‟s online world and sampled from the perspective of students,
parents and teachers in the Bendigo region. In the instance of the responses from primary
school children, these data are likely to be representative of the behaviours and concerns of
primary aged children in the Bendigo region. In terms of the secondary school student, parent,
and teacher data, the responses are best interpreted as suggesting possible behaviours, attitudes
and concerns of these groups in the community, but are not representative due to low
participation rates.
The low response rates for secondary school students, including the case of one high school
where many parent consent forms were obtained yet the school failed to have students
complete the survey, and poor participation particularly by parents in this research possibly
suggest:
a lack of community engagement,
a lack of knowledge of the risks of children‟s online behaviours
an unwillingness to acknowledge these risks,
and a low rank for cybersafety amongst a range of priorities that compete for time and
resources.
It is our aim that the results and recommendations from this research inspire and assist the
Bendigo region to take children‟s online safety seriously and act effectively and with energy as
a community to protect their children.
TYPICAL INTERNET USE
Most primary school students used the internet every second to every day and for less than an
hour, and most high school students used the internet everyday for less than 2 hours. These
rates are similar to other Australian research (Click and Connect: Young Australian‟s use of
Online Social Media Report, ACMA, 2009). For primary school children, playing games,
doing homework, and surfing websites were the most common activities. For high school
students, a behaviour change in accord with adolescent development was displayed as the most
common activities were social networking (development of the importance of peers and social
connection) and downloading music/videos (participation in teen culture). The students‟
patterns of online activities are similar to national and international studies of young people‟s
internet use (ACMA, 2009; PEW Research Centre Internet & American Life Project Social
Media & Mobile Internet Use Among Teens & Young Adults Report, Feb 2010).
57 LMCP Bendigo Region Report