During New Zealand’s lockdown our young people may spend more of their time on line.
This situation provides a great opportunity for parents, caregivers and whānau to discuss internet safety.
We encourage you to discuss with our students what they do online including sites they can visit and appropriate behaviours including:
- reviewing and approving games and apps before they are downloaded
- reviewing privacy settings of sites and apps
- reviewing your young person’s profiles and what they are posting online
- discussing the permanence of anything that is posted online
- taking the time to understand what sites they are visiting and who they are talking with and check in regularly
- monitoring use of the internet and consider having them use it in an open, common area of the house
- making sure they know to report any activity they don’t feel comfortable with to parents and caregivers straight away.
If we all work together to make sure our young people are safe online, we can make the internet a great tool for people of all ages. Netsafe continues to be available to provide you with support for online safety. They have information for parents and caregivers (https://www.netsafe.org.nz/online-safety-for-parents/) and have pulled together their top tips for online safety during the lockdown (https://www.netsafe.org.nz/the-best-online-safety-tips-for-lockdown/).
To report an incident to Netsafe: https://www.netsafe.org.nz/reportanincident/