Is Telstra's $2m enough to keep kids safe online?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 04 February 2008 12:40

Opinion and Analysis

Clearly, all of the existing cyber safety educational programs from a range of organisations, agencies, companies and government organisations is a great thing, but children are still using the Internet in an unsafe manner inside their homes, they’re still being bullied online and through their phones, and parents still don’t fully understand the Internet. 

While this problem will never be 100% resolved no matter what is done, why not tackle online safety from an early age – through schools?

Almost every child goes to school. Computers and the Internet are common in schools today. There’s no doubt that a range of in school online safety programs already exist at schools across Australia.

But if the Federal Government wants to meddle and go around making things mandatory or compulsory – why not ensure that a nationwide Internet safety program, involving parents, their children and teachers – is conducted at each and every school across Australia, whether public or private?

I’m not suggesting that we make it mandatory for parents to drop what they’re doing and race to school to sit in the classroom with their children, learning about Internet safety.

But parent-teacher sessions on Internet safety could be made available to parents who want to learn more, or parent/adult Internet education classes made available through the kinds of organisations that the Telstra Foundation already works with.

Children are already at school every weekday. Making online safety a part of the curriculum from an early age would go a long way to ensure that our cyber savvy children know how to conduct themselves safely online – and when using their mobile phones.

Computing and Internet safety, online stranger danger, how to chat safely in chat rooms, private information that should never be divulged online, what to do if you’re bullied online and plenty more should be a part of the standard educational curriculum, especially if parents don’t understand some of these things themselves.

In the absence of a co-ordinated national cyber safety campaign taught in schools, all of the existing cyber safety campaigns through organisations like NetAlert, Common Sense Media and Telstra’s $2m contribution to fund even more safety programs for children are highly commendable and even essential.

But officially making cyber safety and all it entails for parents and children a part of the curriculum of every school in Australia, no matter how else the educational curricula of the Australian States and Territories differs, would be a far better idea than the compulsory filtering and censorship of the Internet.