Playing our part

Cybersafety is a key area of concern for Australian young people and their families...

STAYING SAFE ONLINE

Today we're celebrating Safer Internet Day! This is an opportunity to highlight positive uses of technology and explore the role we all play in helping create a better and safer online community. The theme for this year's celebration is "play your part for a better internet". :)

The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner, who coordinates Safer Internet Day (SID) in Australia, is a one-stop-shop for online safety. The Office provides Australians with a range of up-to-date information and resources as well as a complaints system to assist children who experience serious cyberbullying.

Their hope is to encourage behavioural change – where Australian children and young people act responsibly online, just as they would offline.

Kids Helpline partners with the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner to deliver support and counselling for children and young people aged 5-25 who have concerns from being online. Children and young people who report cyberbullying to the eSafety Commissioner can link directly to Kids Helpline from the Office’s website and access counselling support via phone, email and web. Kids Helpline also offers a diverse range of resources relating to online safety.

Together, Kids Helpline and the eSafety Commissioner play an important role in promoting online safety for children and young people.

In 2015, the most commonly viewed kids hot topic (now known as tips & info) on the Kids Helpline website was Staying Safe Online, accounting for 15% of all kids hot topic page views. This was also the most commonly viewed of all kids hot topics in 2014.

In the teens area of the Kids Helpline website, a number of hot topics (now known as tips & info) relating to cybersafety received substantial numbers of page views in 2015. These included Cyberbullying (15,962), Sexting (12,322) and Safe Technology & Social Networking/Staying Safe Online (1,481).

The Optus Kids Helpline @ School program has received a significant increase in cybersafety session bookings compared to this time last year too. Our free early intervention and prevention program connects primary school classrooms with a Kids Helpline counsellor via video link, and aims to increase mental health literacy, digital citizenship and help-seeking behaviour of children.

On this Safer Internet Day, join us by playing your part for a better internet!

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