Australia’s eSafety Commissioner has teamed up with Big Ted, Jemima and other characters from Play School to help families with young children kick off good online safety habits in 2020.
About the Initiative
According to a recent press release, the new Family Tech Agreement is designed to make it easier for parents and carers to set boundaries around the use of digital devices like tablets, smart TVs and gaming consoles.
The Play School characters have been included to help young children understand each rule.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant explained that the amount of time young children spend online is a common concern for parents. Thus, the Family Tech Agreement is a great way to have conversations and manage expectations around technology use, from an early age.
These rules not only provide parents with tools to help keep their children safer online, but they also encourage kindness when using technology and help limit potential ‘tech tantrums’.
Examples of these rules are:
- Asking before using a device or playing a new game online
- Only using devices in shared spaces of the home
- Only talking to people they know online
Who are Involved?
ABC Children is excited to collaborate with the eSafety Commissioner on the Family Tech Agreement.
Young children are surrounded by technology, so with the help of the Play School toys, which are trusted friends of the audience, the company is giving them the best tools to navigate the digital world in order to ensure they have a safe and positive experience online.
Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts, Paul Fletcher MP, shared that the Federal Government is committed to keeping Australians, particularly children, safe online.
It is important that parents and carers help their children to establish healthy habits with digital devices as they grow up.
Families are encouraged to download the Family Tech Agreement and start these conversations about online safety from a young age.
Early Years Resources
The Family Tech Agreement is the first of eSafety’s newly developed Early Years resources, being rolled out in 2020 to support children under 5, their families and early childhood educators.
eSafety Commissioner has also provided advice about choosing good online content for young children, which can be accessed here.
Early Years is a program to support the very youngest Australians, under 5s, to have safe and enjoyable experiences online.
It provides a suite of online safety resources to meet the needs of young children, their families and early childhood educators.
They aim to provide key advice on online safety and help young children, their families and educators to build positive relationships with technology.
Protecting the Children is Everyone’s Concern
The advent of technology has provided anyone and everyone access to the internet with unparalleled ease.
With this ubiquitous access, however, one of the major growing concerns across the globe is the online safety of the children.
The #BeCyberSafe Project is a project of Stairway Foundation in the Philippines, which aims to further educate the Filipino community on how children can remain safe in the cyber world.
The 3 main components to the project – awareness, education and safety – were addressed through 3 projects: Project for Keeps, Dalir-Eskwela, and Chatbot.
India is also doing its part with the Cyber Crime Prevention Against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme. The Ministry of Home Affairs stated that its main objective is to develop effective mechanisms to handle cybercrimes against women and children in the country.
Key components include an online cybercrime reporting platform, a national-level cyber forensic laboratory and a capacity-building unit.