Senior Constable Tania Wansink visited WGHS last Monday, to share some tips on cyber safety with our Year 10 cohort.
She started by outlining the Harmful Digital Communications Act which makes it an offence to put anything online that causes harm to another person on purpose. This includes any sort of digital comment, post or email that includes things like indecent or threatening language, and hateful messages – whether true or not. Tania told the students it is illegal to encourage someone to commit suicide – including simply using the abbreviation KYS.
Students were warned of the dangers of sexting and how sending images that start out as flirting can end up a permanent reminder of a bad choice – particularly important to this age group as they are under 16. Tania told the students to think about their future self and the effects their choices could have – likening them to a digital tattoo that never goes away. She warned that of the 60% of employers that looked at a candidate’s social media presence, 48% saw something that caused them not to hire that person. This included excessive drinking, drug use, racist and sexist language and negative comments on other people’s posts.
Tania told students not to respond to bullies, ensure privacy settings were activated, unfriend and block where necessary, and if they were concerned about something they had posted themseleves, or somehting someone else had posted, they should talk to a trusted adult.