Last week we were privileged to have the CEO of Netsafe, Brent Carey come and talk to whānau about how to support our young people/rangitahi in online spaces. Preceding Brent’s presentation our HoD of Digital Learning & Communications gave a short overview of digital learning & citizenship at Western Springs College-Ngā Puna o Waiōrea.
Brent discussed rangitahi’s use of online spaces, what we can do to keep them safe & the challenges of the internet. He explained how important it is to know what our rangitahi are doing online and how we can talk to them about keeping safe – the focus being understanding and keeping lines of communication open in order to reduce harm and the likelihood they will speak up when things go wrong. He also explained some of the recent trends in social media use.
Here are some of the essential tips he gave for parents/whānau to help keep their young ones safe. We will be highlighting these strategies in whānau class also.
There are excellent parent/whānau support resources on the Netsafe site here. Whilst we didn’t record this session in order to allow whānau to feel comfortable asking curly questions, you can watch a Netsafe presentation covering the same topics here.
Please note that all our students/ākonga have access to this presentation on the student landing page reminding them how to get help if something goes wrong online. Their online rights and responsibilities are reflected in our school value of Fairness/Tautikatanga. We teach them that they have the right to be safe online & a responsibility to be fair to everyone in our school community.
Thanks to Brent and Netsafe for an educational and inspiring evening!
Deb Thompson
H.O.D Digital Learning & Communications
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