The Social Media Resource Every Parent and Carer Needs

As part of the Australian Federal Police’s (AFP’s) seven days of back-to-school safety tips to help parents, carers and students prevent instances of online child sexual exploitation, the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) and ThinkUKnow have released a social media starter kit.

The Parent and carer social media starter kit: preventing online child sexual exploitation provides information and advice on various social media channels, their features and how to implement safety measures to help prevent inappropriate contact for children and young people. AFP Commander for the AFP-led ACCCE Hilda Sirec said turning 13 years old is an important milestone for parents and carers to initiate age-appropriate conversations about their personal safety online. The beginning of the school year is also a great time to start these conversations.

“Websites, apps, games or sites have the potential to be positive, and foster creativity, teach problem-solving skills, and provide much-needed connectivity to friends, however, there is also the potential for them to be misused or cause harm.

“Talking to your children early and often about their online behaviour as well as educating them on safe online practices is key to ensuring that children use the internet safely.”

Although at the age of 13 a young person is legally allowed to create an account in their own name, it does not necessarily mean that the content and images they will be exposed to is appropriate for that age group.

Parent and carer social media starter kit: preventing online child sexual exploitation

Commander Sirec said the AFP recommends all parents and carers have the following conversations with their children when they are old enough to sign up for social media: • Discuss their online activities, including how they intend to use an app and who they will be interacting with; • Talk about appropriate privacy settings. The AFP recommends strong privacy settings and regularly checking that they are still in place as they can be changed at any time; • Talk about how to recognise a suspicious friend or follower request and what to do about it (block, and if, necessary, report); • Discuss their options if someone online was asking personal questions or even asking for sexualised images; and • Make sure your child has a support network of trusted people they can talk to if something goes wrong.

The social media starter kit along with other helpful information and advice can be found on the ThinkUKnow (www.thinkuknow.org.au) and ACCCE (www.accce.gov.au) websites. You can also follow the ThinkUKnow and ACCCE social media channels at:

ThinkUKnow

Facebook: ThinkUKnow Australia Twitter: ThinkUKnow_Aus YouTube: ThinkUKnowAUS

ACCCE

Facebook: ACCCEaus Twitter: ACCCE_AUS YouTube: ACCCE Instagram: accceaus