One of Australia’s leading experts in cyber safety and young people, Susan McLean has encouraged students and parents in the Gloucester community to be extremely cautious online.
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Ms McLean spoke to primary and secondary school students on Thursday, March 22 and covered areas such as the ‘reality of technology use’, how police can obtain online material as evidence, cyber bullying, online predators and the legalities of online behaviour.
She said the talk is showing children, through examples, the dangers of the internet.
"Their use of technology is not a problem but it's the other stuff that they don't understand, the reality, the fact that people will want to harm them online, they will want to scam them, they will want to extort money out of them.
"Kids need to understand the social and emotional consequences that are a part of life online but they also need to understand the legal stuff.
"I’ve been dealing with online issues in young people for 24 years so I have so many anecdotal things to tell them about what's happened, what’s happening now and the real dumb things that people do online,” Ms McLean said.
She added that it is highly important for rural children to be aware of online dangers as they are often ill-equipped with the skills needed to be safe.
She said schools need to be involved in the process.
"Many schools are very proactive in this space but there are schools that don't get it so I feel sorry for their children,” Ms McLean said.
"Country kids are great kids and they are very receptive to this and I think we have a responsibility to ensure as many young people as possible get the right information.”
Ms McLean insisted that parents need to be consistently involved in their children’s online use.
"Parents have a massive role to play in not the 'block, ban, take away technology' but being an active participant in their child's online life, the same as they are an active participant in their life in the real world.
"If you're not aware of what you are trying to protect your children from, you can't protect them.
"Your use of technology is not going to be as good as your kids but you have life experiences and maturity and commonsense so use those skills to match up with your kids technical skills,” Ms McLean said.
Ms McLean spent 27 years in the Victorian police force and was the first officer appointed to a role involving cyber safety and young people.
She speaks to, on average, 70,000 young people each year.
"I do presentations in every state and territory across the country and also internationally,” she said.
