NSWPPA PROFESSIONAL LEARNING INTERVIEW WITH YASMIN LONDON @nswppa
NSW PPA Vision: To empower school leaders by delivering quality professional learning
We sat down with Yasmin London from ySafe by Linewize to discuss all things cyber safety. After spending 13 years in the New South Wales Police Force, Yasmin contributes unique expertise in the field of cyber safety. Having operated at the coalface dealing with the real life consequences of online abuse experienced by young people, Yasmin felt impassioned about the need for preventative action in cyber safety, in order to minimise the need for critical intervention. Who are ySafe? Originally founded by psychologists, the need was identified for a multidisciplinary approach to cyber safety education and management. With that, their team expanded to include clinical psychologists, ex-police officers and teachers who are leaders in the field of cyber safety and social media. Their combined experience in child development, research, policing, and classroom contexts has provided them with a unique insight into the challenges and opportunities that participating in a digital environment presents to students, parents, and schools.
............................................................................................................................................................................. How does ySafe's work align with NSWPPA's key values? "Principals are the heart and soul of schools, and we are committed to ensuring they have the resources and expertise to support their communities in the online safety space. When it comes to principal wellbeing, leadership and operations, the online safety space can feel overwhelming and endless in its changes and real world implications. We work hard to support the leaders in our partner schools to resource and relieve that burden by providing trusted, engaging and impactful education services that help school communities not just survive, but thrive online."
.............................................................................................................. What motivates you to promote cyber safety? "Being a police officer for 13 years, I saw the good, the bad and the ugly when it came to the online world. I wanted to deliver information that resonated with young people and ensure they had advocacy and knowledge that built their capacity to deal with the digital world, rather than the disconnected fear mongering approach I saw, which ultimately leads to disengagement from services by young people. The online world is now ubiquitous and only going to become more and more present in our lives, so we need to build our digital resilience as human beings in order to deal with its challenges, and importantly, to enjoy all it has to offer." What impact does ySafe have?
1 million students
400,000 parents
150,000 staff
700 + schools
What services can ySafe provide to NSW Public Schools?
"ySafe forms part of the Education & Engagement arm of a global organisation called Linewize. Linewize protects and supports 15 million children in 27,000 schools on their digital journey’s, worldwide. At ySafe we deliver educational content, as well as resources and support to all school stakeholders, providing relatable, reliable information to the right people at the right time through our Online Safety Hubs. We also support schools to support their parents in their homes with our parental control tool Qustodio, which allows parents to actively involve themselves in their children's online activities by gaining visibility on what their children are doing and the power to manage their access to risky content and screen time. It’s brilliant!"
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"When it comes to impact, we are obviously in a lot of schools and have been for many years, but the true impact we see is in our day to day when we have young people approach us and tell us they learned something new, didn’t feel judged or patronised, and that they loved our empowered approach to the use of technology. It's why we spend years in schools, helping students and communities grow. We don't come in for a session or two, we are about partnering with our schools, and helping them with a holistic approach to not only education, but the preventative, interventional and wellbeing opportunities they may not be seeing."
How has ySafe supported schools? "We’ve had countless situations where our presentations have been the catalyst for students reporting or disclosing incidents which were previously unknown, or situations where parents have reported to us that our advice has helped them intervene and identify strangers contacting their children, or even when quite extensive grooming processes have been identified and police have become involved. I think what has always resonated with me is that principals and school leaders are always saying they feel safe and comfortable because they know we have their backs. Schools are busy places, and principals are always relied upon to be the north star and ultimate source of truth. That's a lot of pressure and responsibility, especially when it comes to a rapidly evolving space like the online world.They need help, and we are there for them."
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