LODDON MALLEE - Cyber Safe Kids

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need for internet use rules to encourage parents to extend the rules to focus strongly on engagement and ethical behaviours when online. New and innovative means of reaching parents are needed as information nights and workshops are typically poorly attended and the low response rate by parents to the <strong>Cyber</strong>safe Survey suggest that cyber safety is not a priority. It is recommended that a marketing strategy is developed for the Bendigo region to help disseminate breakthrough messages to parents. INTERNET USE RULES AT SCHOOL – STUDENTS‟, PARENTS‟ AND TEACHERS‟ RESPONSES In terms of internet use rules at school, almost 100% of the student and parent sample reported that they had at least one rule at school and the most common rules were that the school had an internet use policy and rules, and that particular websites were blocked. This is in stark contrast to the teachers‟ responses. Less than 60% of teachers surveyed reported that their school had internet use policy and rules and less than 70% reported that their school blocked websites. Despite having rules and blocks in place at school, 32.5% of grade 4-6 students and 58.9% of year 7-10 students reported being able to get around some or all of the school internet use rules or blocks. In addition, 25.4% of parents and 90.8% of teachers reported that they thought their students were able to get around some or all of the school internet use rules or blocks. Further, of the students reported accessing inappropriate or adult only 18+ websites, 20% reported accessing inappropriate websites at school and 14.6% reported accessing adult only or 18+ websites at school. Anecdotally the most common way of bypassing school networks is through the use of proxy servers which then provide full access to the internet. It is concerning that a reasonably high proportion of teachers are either unaware of school internet rules or policies or believe that there are none in place at their school. In rare circumstances this may leave schools and teachers exposed to litigation should an adverse incident occur. If, in fact, teachers‟ responses are accurate and their school does not have an internet use policy or block harmful content, this too may open schools to extensive reputational damage or litigation. RECOMMENDATIONS: For students to respect school internet use policies and rules, it is critical that students and teachers share a common understanding of what these policies and rules are and what the consequences and sanctions are for breaking them. School internet use policies and rules need to be devised/revised in consultation with students. This provides an opportunity to engage students in conversation around their online behaviours and may deliver opportunities for learning around ethics and legalities of online activities. The results of the survey show that it is known by all groups surveyed, students, teachers and parents, that students are bypassing risk controls within schools. It is recommended as a matter of urgency that a full risk assessment is conducted engaging many different stakeholders such 60 LMCP Bendigo Region Report
as policy makers, legal advisors, teachers and most importantly students to cover many different risk contexts associated with internet access at school (e.g. legal, reputation, direct harm, financial and operational). The risk assessment will assist in prioritising which issues require urgent attention and how to best allocate limited resources. It is recommended that facilitators of the risk assessment follow the Australian Standard risk assessment guidelines AS4360. UNWANTED EXPOSURE TO SOMETHING HORRIBLE, WORRYING, OR SCARY Almost a quarter of the students in grades 4 to year 10 had been exposed to something “horrible, worrying, or scary” on the internet. Rather than direct answers, children were asked the open ended question “what was the horrible, worrying or scary thing” and their responses fell into the following categories from most to least frequent: scary images/movies or games, pornographic photos/videos, sexual harassment or solicitation, images/videos of animal cruelty (in particular images on the RSPCA website), being threatened or bullied, and disgusting or grotesque images (often of physical insult and body disfigurements). The source of this exposure was diverse, from pop-up screens, to outcomes of innocent searches, friends scaring each other when in each other‟s company, and being recommended via email/social networking to look at something. It is positive to note, however, that whilst this exposure was unwanted, only 39.4% of grade 4-6 and 20.7% of year 7-10 students were “pretty” to “very upset” because of the exposure. It is difficult to compare these results to other studies due to methodological differences, nevertheless, the rates of exposure are similar to an international study (Norton, 2009), but the extent to which children were upset by the exposure is lower. Whilst there is much public discussion about exposure to online pornography, these results suggest that there is a range of inappropriate and scary images and content that children are viewing online which they find disturbing, in particular scary images, animal cruelty and physical assault and disfigurement. In this sample, the students often reported exposing each other to these unsettling images: in some cases this was for fun, but in others this exposure occurred because they told their friends about finding something upsetting, and the friend wished to see it. Telling friends about upsetting events is a natural and immediate reaction particularly for high school students. In doing so, however, children and young people inadvertently expose others to the upsetting material. RECOMMENDATIONS: Children need education and assistance in harnessing their internal indicators that something is not okay with them (i.e. “the butterflies in the tummy,” “feeling shaky,” “feeling sick”) and to identify a safe adult they can share and process these feelings with rather than exposing their peers. It is critical that “offline” protective behaviours education 61 LMCP Bendigo Region Report
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ISBN: [978-0-9808654-0-0] Citation
Page 4 and 5:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Cybersafe Su
Page 6 and 7:
Many young people reported being ex
Page 8 and 9:
Messages from students regarding th
Page 10 and 11: INTRODUCTION The internet and other
Page 12 and 13: For both parents and teachers, a co
Page 14 and 15: RESULTS RESPONSE RATES STUDENT RESP
Page 16 and 17: STUDENT SURVEY DEMOGRAPHICS The gen
Page 18 and 19: Figure 3. Activities on the interne
Page 20 and 21: Figure 6. Percentage of year 9-10 s
Page 22 and 23: Figure 8. Percentage of grade 4-6 s
Page 24 and 25: When asked if they knew how to get
Page 26 and 27: Table 4. What best describes your o
Page 28 and 29: INDICATORS OF COMPULSIVE USE Possib
Page 30 and 31: ONLINE HARASSMENT Students were ask
Page 32 and 33: To understand the online harassment
Page 34 and 35: Table 12. Frequency of types of onl
Page 36 and 37: UNDERSTANDING LAWS REGARDING THE IN
Page 38 and 39: On a positive note some students re
Page 40 and 41: Parents were asked to answer the fo
Page 42 and 43: Figure 17. Proportion of parents wh
Page 44 and 45: PARENTS‟ CONCERNS AND OPINIONS AB
Page 46 and 47: INTERVENTIONS TO KEEP YOUNG PEOPLE
Page 48 and 49: PARENTS‟ UNDERSTANDING OF LEGAL A
Page 50 and 51: WHAT DO YOU THINK ADULTS NEED TO KN
Page 52 and 53: ATTITUDES TO INFORMATION AND CONNEC
Page 54 and 55: (90%) and 85.7% reported hate advoc
Page 56 and 57: Figure 26. Percentage of teachers w
Page 58 and 59: SOCIAL NETWORKING The majority of h
Page 62 and 63: is brought to bear on and taught ex
Page 64 and 65: managing the impact of their comput
Page 66 and 67: surveyed from grade 4 to year 9. Th
Page 68 and 69: ONLINE SAFETY INTERVENTIONS AND MET
Page 70 and 71: SUMMARY In summary, the Cybersafe S
Page 72 and 73: APPENDICES APPENDIX 1 Table 17. Con
Page 74 and 75: APPENDIX 2 Table 18. All websites l
Page 76: squiglys playhouse 1 0 0 0 stardoll
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