Toptips

• Get devices out of bedrooms and bathrooms. No matter how good a parent you are, you can’t supervise in a bedroom and a bathroom. If your child complains that they like to listen to music in the shower, buy them a Bluetooth speaker, keep the phone in the kitchen. If your child complains that their phone is their alarm clock, head into Kmart and purchase a clock radio.

• Have a set of rules, you have rules about acceptable behavior in real life. Make sure those rules extend online. So an online family contract about expectations of use is important.

• Know your children’s passcodes and passwords. That is not invading their privacy, that’s being a parent.

“What about all the random strangers on school grounds through student mobile phones you are allowing them to use. That’s a huge issue.”

Susan said we need to educate students to use mobile phones responsibly, but that doesn’t mean having your phone unsupervised all day.

“Kids need to understand there’s a time and a place for using mobile phones,’’ Susan said.

“In many workplaces you can’t touch your phone. If you’ve had six years of fiddling on your phone when it suits you, you haven’t been an effective worker.

“There’s also issues with over stimulated brains. You need some time away from your screens, everyone needs that. Kids don’t need mobile phones. There’s a big difference between need and want. If you need to contact your child you contact the school to deliver a message to them.

“Parents will say take your phone in case you need them. Don’t worry about the rules. Phones are handy, I missed the bus, sports training cancelled. Handy, not a safety device to keep your child safe.”

Susan asks parents to take a step back and make an assessment. She encourages the School community to work together in the same direction.

“We (parents) have to set the tone and expectation. Schools can’t do it alone, they need to be supported by their parents,’’ Susan said.

Susan worked with leading Australian psychologist, and author, Dr Michael Carr-Gregg during a New South Wales Government review into mobile phones in schools three years ago.

“We spoke to hundreds of people. We spoke to kids, parents, teachers, principals. Not one person where a phone had been removed from a school environment said that was a poor choice,’’ Susan said.

“They all said ‘we wish we had done that earlier’. The change in the ability of the kids to concentrate, the change in the interaction in the playground was phenomenal.”

Make sure that you can, if necessary, get into their accounts if something has gone wrong.

• Talk early. Talk often. The earlier you start, the better. But it is never too late to start. Let your children know that no matter what they can come to you.

• Use some sort of filtering. Please understand the Internet is a very adult world. It does not come segmented into age appropriate areas, so you need some sort of filtering to help make sure that your children are not exposed to inappropriate, explicit or illegal content.

• Learn to say no. It’s a very important word, and it’s one, sadly, that a lot of parents don’t use. They’re too worried about upsetting their child or having their child not like them. It’s not your job to be liked by your children. Your children will love and respect you for saying, no.

• Don’t try and be your child’s best friend. That will end with disaster.

• Learn about the apps that they use, be there with them, download them, look at them, play with them. Have an appreciation of what the app is, what it does, and how to best protect your children when they use those apps. www.cybersafetysolutions.com. au/top-tips/

• Use security and privacy settings. Some apps have really good privacy and security, some not so. But if you’re not using them, it’s like the bike helmet. If it’s not on your head when you fall off, it’s not going to protect you.

• Make sure that you limit their online communications to people they know and trust in real life. This isn’t going to remove risk, but it’s going to reduce risk. So unless I know them in real life and I mean really know them, not a friend of a friend. They shouldn’t be hanging out with them online.

• Know where your child is online, just as the same as would in the real world. Know where they’re going, know what they’re doing. and make sure you regularly check in with them. Do not be afraid of technology. It’s not going to harm you if you use it well.