Principal

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Last week we were delighted to welcome Trent Ray from The Cyber Safety Project (CSP) to Camberwell Girls as a speaker in our HORIZON Parent Education Series held in conjunction with Camberwell Grammar. This followed on from a presentation that Trent gave to Camberwell Girls staff at the beginning of the year.

This year, we have partnered with CSP to run a sequential program centred on practising digital safety and wellbeing from Foundation through to Year 8. In adopting a whole school community (students, parents and staff) approach to the intentional use of technology, we are supporting our students’ experience of the benefits of technology whilst mitigating harmful challenges. The program is being conducted by Class teachers in the Junior School and Tutors and Form teachers in the Middle School. In addition, the CSP project is running programs directly with our Year 9 and Senior years students as part of Upskill.

To support parents, Camberwell Girls has subscribed to the CSP’s Tech Safe Parents Webinar Series. The first webinar in the series ran this week, and the recording of that session is now available. You can access that recording or register for a subsequent webinar in the series via this link:

https://cybersafetyproject.com/parents2025/

The increasing need to educate and support our young people to be safe online comes from school and from home. We are all partners in this important work. For those parents who were unable to attend our parents’ evening, I have highlighted some of Trent’s key messages on navigating the digital world safely below:

• Start the chat
  It is important for parents to initiate conversations with their children regarding cyber safety and wellbeing to build a connection with them so that their children feel safe and supported to come to them in moments of challenge and need.
  
  
• Supervise younger children using devices and the internet in the same way you would when they are learning to swim
  Device use in the primary school and younger secondary school should be highly supported with parents supervising and ensuring that they are used in open spaces, not bedrooms or bathrooms.
  
  
• Non-negotiables
  For all ages develop family non-negotiables for technology use. For example, no screens in the bedrooms or bathrooms, common device charging areas should be out of the bedrooms and there should be screen time limits for all family members.  Role modelling behaviour is important in educating and supporting young people.

• Show you know
  Model how you use technology in a positive way and how to get help when things go wrong for you. If needed show your children how to report things on the eSafety Commissioner Website. Check and play with children to see what apps can do. Use Common Sense Media to help understand the games, apps and websites children are using.  With older children discuss recent scams using ScamWatch. 
  
  

• Age appropriate connections
  Adhere to social media and gaming age recommendations.
  
  
• Positive uses of technology
  Understand different platforms (and their content creation and connection parameters). Young people use digital technologies for a range of purposes, including consuming and producing digital and other creative content. These are good uses of technology (note – we are running Upskill choice workshops in these areas for students).
  
  
• Gaming platforms
  It is important for parents to be aware of gaming platforms as they have different purposes and content creation rights. If your child is using them, you need to be aware of how. For example, some are ‘pay to play’, some allow users to interact in public forums and some allow users to upload content for others to see.
  
  
• Managing social media
  For those students using social media, parents should ensure that their teens know how to set profiles to private and manage followers appropriately.
  
  

• Online Safety Amendment
  Parents of children younger than 16 should start talking early about the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, where Australia is introducing a mandatory minimum age of 16 for accounts on certain social media platforms. The law is scheduled to come into effect in late 2025 and will restrict those under 16 from accessing social media platforms.

I hope that you will find the Cyber Safety Project resources, including their seminars, useful as you navigate the digital world with your child. If you have any well-being concerns about your child in relation to this area, please contact your child’s Class teacher in Junior School or Tutor or Form teacher in Middle or Senior School.

With best wishes,

Debbie Dunwoody
Principal