Students need to be empowered with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to learn with digital tools at school, at home, at work and in their communities. Technology transforms how students think and offers them greater flexibility over how, where and when they learn.
The ACT Education Directorate has a comprehensive and responsive approach to online safety (eSafety) in ACT public schools that complements the teaching and learning of eSafety in classrooms. This approach to supporting students, schools and families is guided by the Office of the eSafety Commissioner’s Best Practice Framework. The Directorate’s eSafety work includes:
- Regular parent webinars on supporting children and young people to have safe and positive online experiences.
- Professional Learning for teachers and school leaders.
- Timely response to support schools when an online incident occurs, including providing tailored advice to schools to manage the incident.
- Termly Acceptable Use Agreements on all student Chromebook accounts to support students to develop a positive digital identity and strong digital citizenship skills.
- Curriculum aligned eSafety modules for students in preschool to year 10, with additional modules for years 6 and 7 to support their transition into secondary school and the provision of Chromebooks under the Directorate’s Technology Enabled Learning program.
- Web-based filtering to help keep students safe online when they are browsing with their school account, at school or at home.
Resources for teachers and school leaders
The Directorate has compiled a range of high-quality resources to support schools in delivering an enriching digital program aimed to educate our students about online safety. Resources have been collated from our partnerships with the Office of the eSafety Commissioner, Australian Federal Police, and Google Education, as well as from a range of other eSafety providers, offering school communities a variety of age-appropriate resources to draw on. Information, resources and contact details of the Directorate’s eSafety Education team, for teachers and school leaders, can be found on the Service Portal 
site for staff.
Parents and carers play a critical role in how their children establish safe, positive, and healthy online behaviours. There are many things you can do, alongside your child’s school, to support them as they learn to use technology. The following resources and links are suitable for families of children of any age.
The eSafety Commissioner provides evidence-based practical advice, strategies, resources, and webinars for parents and carers to support children and young people to have safe online experiences. The eSafety Commissioner also publishes information about current key online safety issues such as cyberbullying, social media trends, and image-based abuse, to support families to navigate these issues.
Think U Know - Resources for Parents and Carers
ThinkUKnow Australia is an evidence-based education program led by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), delivered nationally in partnership with police and industry partners to prevent online child sexual exploitation.
Online child sexual exploitation can be confronting and not something that you may have considered as an issue with regards to your child’s online safety. ThinkUKnow provides parents with resources, advice and support to prevent, manage and overcome the challenges relating to online child sexual exploitation including privacy, self-generated child sexual exploitation material, online grooming, image-based abuse, and sexual extortion.
Be Internet Awesome - Digital Safety Resources – Tools for the home
Be Internet Awesome is a Google initiative aimed at helping children be safe, confident explorers of the online world.
Be Internet Awesome provides families with tools, resources, advice and activities to learn about online safety and citizenship. It includes guides for incorporating and practising good digital habits to be safe, smart and positive online.
Beacon is designed specifically for parents as a personalised, one-stop-shop for reliable information about the online world. It arms parents and carers with the knowledge they need to confidently help navigate their children’s digital behaviour and reduce harms we know are associated with being online and on screens. Beacon supports families with articles and videos backed by the latest research; tailored content and alerts, unique to your family needs; an interactive, personalised digital family agreement; and help and services that are available to you and your family.
There are also great resources for children and young people where they can learn how to be safe and have positive experiences online, but also what to do when something goes wrong online. Families might like to explore these resources together and save them for
eSafety Kids provides useful information, simple advice, and fun activities for children to help them to have safe and enjoyable experiences online. Through the four guiding principles – safe, kind, curious and secure – the eSafety Commissioner supports children with online issues such as privacy and security, cyberbullying, and seeking help.
eSafety Young People provides useful information, resources, and practical and proactive advice for teenagers and young adults to navigate the online world safely and positively. eSafety Young People addresses online issues including online relationships, image-based abuse, cyberbullying and digital reputation.
The eSafety Commissioner provides the top 5 tips for keeping your family safe online:
5 tips to keep your family safe online
Parents and carers can use a combination of strategies to help young people build their digital technology skills and have safer experiences online.
Start the chat
Get into the habit of talking about online safety as a family, so your child feels comfortable coming to you if they ever need help working out an issue. It’s never too early to introduce good online habits such as respect, empathy, critical thinking, responsible behaviour and resilience. As your child grows older, eSafety’s advice about hard to have conversations will help with some of the tricky topics like sending nudes, online pornography and contact from sexual predators.
Create a family technology agreement
Creating a Family Technology Agreement can help you and your kids decide together when and how digital technology will be used at home. As a family, brainstorm easy-to-follow rules and display them where everyone will see them. Your agreement could cover things like: time limits, apps your kids are allowed to use and online behaviour. Families with younger children can download a template from the eSafety Commissioner , or there are digital family technology agreement templates available for children of any age available through the Beacon App .
Set up parental controls
Parental controls let you monitor and limit what your child sees and does online. It’s best to use them in combination with the other online safety strategies listed here. This page from the eSafety Commissioner – Parental Controls – can help you understand your options. Grab a device and get started with eSafety’s guides to setting up parental controls on devices and accounts or in social media, games and apps .
Choose games and other apps carefully
Use eSafety’s App checklist for parents to think about the benefits and risks when your child asks to download a new game or other app. The checklist covers things like age ratings, managing privacy settings and reporting abuse in-app. You can also use The eSafety Guide to check and set up safety features with your child.
Use digital technology together
Exploring or playing on devices or online with your child can be a positive experience that promotes learning and development. Ask questions, be curious and get involved.
eSafety’s parent and carer videos
For further short videos, e-books, information sheets, audio files, example family tech agreements and activities to help you start the chat about online safety issues and strategies with your child, visit the eSafety Parent Resources page .
Bullying is an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm. It can involve an individual or a group misusing their power, or perceived power, over one or more persons who feel unable to stop it from happening.
Bullying can happen in person or online, via various digital platforms and devices and it can be obvious (overt) or hidden (covert). Bullying behaviour is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time (for example, through sharing of digital records).
eSafety’s parent and carer guide to cyberbullying and online drama video
The eSafety Commissioner provides advice about how parents and carers can help children prevent and deal with online bullying. For videos, information sheets and other resources, go to the eSafety Cyberbullying page .
The Education Directorate’s Safe and Supportive Schools policy provides guidance to schools on promoting safe, respectful and supportive school environments. Schools are required to have processes and procedures in place to address and prevent bullying, harassment and violence, including cyberbullying. School’s preventative focus includes social and emotional learning approaches and digital citizenship programs that support the development of resilience, critical thinking and social skills.
Just as bullying, harassment or abuse would not be tolerated in the classroom or on the playground, they are similarly not tolerated within online environments. Schools manage online incidents of bullying, harassment or abuse as they would have if they occurred in the physical environment.
If your child has been involved in cyberbullying and seems distressed or shows changes in behaviour or mood, we advise you to contact your child's school and speak to the teacher or year coordinator/ welfare support.