LODDON MALLEE - Cyber Safe Kids

surveyed from grade 4 to year 9. These differences do not diminish either research but rather
reflect different methodologies and contexts.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Overall, these data suggest that online harassment may be higher
in the Bendigo region than the Victorian state average and therefore requires immediate action.
Many excellent recommendations can be drawn upon from the Australian Covert Bullying
Prevalence Study (Cross et al., 2009). The ones that seem particularly relevant in relation to the
findings from the Bendigo region are to establish in consultation with students and the whole
school community:
clear definitions of online harassment,
policies, programs, and procedures which explicitly address online harassment, and
clearly documented and displayed procedural steps to manage online harassment
making explicit the roles and responsibilities of staff, students and parents,
clearly documented and displayed consequences for students who are found to harass
and bully their peers online
UNDERSTANDING INTERNET ETHICS AND LAWS
There was an interesting discrepancy in attitudes and understanding between the primary and
high school students around the role of adults, parents and law enforcement on the internet and
the ethics and legality of certain online behaviours. For the most part, students in year 7-11 felt
that the internet was their private place with no rules, regulations, monitors or controls. For
many of these students they experience the internet as the place in which they are the experts
compared to the adults in their lives. Therefore, whilst there are programs available and ways
for parents or other concerned adults to monitor young people‟s online activities, for most of
today‟s teens “the horse has already bolted” and reining in these young people seems too hard a
task for many parents.
RECOMMENDATIONS: It is critical that parents implement monitoring programs (e.g. a
free option is Norton Online Family) and develop a family culture of monitoring, responsibility
and accountability for online behaviours. This must be implemented when the oldest child in
the family is in primary school with the expectation that monitoring, responsibility and
accountability for online behaviours will continue throughout adolescence. Further, as parents
are arguably more involved in their children‟s schooling when they are in primary school
compared with high school, this is an ideal time to target parents with strategies to implement a
healthy online family culture.
66 LMCP Bendigo Region Report