ThinkUKnow about online safety? Here'sHowUCan!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 19 February 2010 12:17

Your IT - Home IT

A new school-based cyber safety program called 'ThinkUKnow' has now been launched on a national basis to help Australians better protect themselves from 'online sex offenders, cyber bullies and scammers' by the Australian Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O'Connor.

Microsoft, it's joint venture company 'ninemsn' and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have decide to expand the existing 'ThinkUKnow' program on a national basis to 'help educate children throughout Australia about cyber-safety and security and encourage them to think before they act online.'

The 'ThinkUKnow' program, which originated in the UK by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center (CEOP), already operates in the Australian states of New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory (the ACT).

However, the program will now also be rolled out to five more states and Australia's other territory throughout 2010: Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

Last year's pilot of the program identified 'strong support for the program and the empowering knowledge it provides', and specifically deals with knowledge on 'how to report online sexual exploitation, inappropriate content, cyber bullying, spam, scams and advice on other safety and security issues', and it is naturally expected the same kind of positives results already seen in 2009 will be replicated across Australia in 2010.

Given the fact the Internet has only grown wilder over the past few years, reinforcing the notion of the 'Wild Wild Web', awareness and education programs of this nature are clearly critical for children, parents and teachers to learn about and understand, and will arguably do a lot more for children's safety than any nationally imposed Internet filter.

So, what else will the AFP, Microsoft and ninemsn do, and what are the thoughts of these companies on the obvious merits of the program?

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