Spreading the message of Cyber Safety across Australia

When we started our Learn with iiNet Cyber Safety Series back in 2011, parents welcomed our expert advice on what they should look out for, and how they could help their kids stay safe online.

It wasn’t long before schools asked us to help spread the word in classrooms, so we started visiting schools in our home state of Western Australia. Cyber Safety is a message that is worth preaching to anyone who’s willing to listen, and we’ve been absolutely thrilled with the response we’ve received.

Getting to hang out with some of the Internet’s youngest and inspirational voyagers is always a plus, but however hard we try, we couldn’t reach every single child, school or parent body across Australia.

That’s where our brand-new Cyber Safety Teaching Resources enter the fray. Designed in line with the Australian National Curriculum, we’ve launched a series of eight lesson plans available to any school across the country, covering everything from recognising scam emails and identifying cyber strangers, right through to using avatars instead of profile pictures.

There was no better school to help launch our Cyber Safety Teaching Resources than Sutherland Dianella Primary School. Armed with some of the most tech-savvy teachers in Australia, Sutherland Dianella was one of the first primary schools in Australia to create their own website, and have a rich history of teaching Cyber Safety to their students.

At the official launch of these resources in the iiStore on 3 September, we were delighted to host teachers, students and parents from Sutherland Dianella to celebrate what has been achieved.

After a few words from our CEO David Buckingham, we were treated to an awesome presentation by Sutherland Dianella’s Head Boy and Head Girl, who spoke about the importance of Cyber Safety for kids their age, while some of their junior classmates ran through a very impressive interactive presentation of their own creation, testing parents, teachers, and even a few iiNet staff members along the way.

While we love being able to spread the message of being safe online to kids wherever we go, it was awesome to see primary school kids create their own presentation (including some pretty cool games, I might add) to help their fellow students. It shows that the message of cyber safety is working and that our brightest and youngest are leading the way.

It was a great evening for teachers and students alike, with parents getting a snapshot of not only what kids need to look out for in the online world, but also the tools that these kids can now use to manage those situations.

It’s no secret that we want to spread Cyber Safety as far and wide as possible. If you’re a teacher and would love to share these resources with your students – please do! We’d love to hear your feedback, and if you’ve got ideas for further resources, we’re all ears. Just flick an email through to the Learn with iiNet team.

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