TIPS FOR STAYING SAFE ONLINE (adapted from esafety.gov.au):
 

1.  Be careful when choosing your online contacts

While having a lot of followers is awesome, it also means that there are more people that you don’t know who can see your stuff. When this happens, there is a higher chance of unwanted contact from strangers (eg through DM’s, comments etc), and a higher chance of your personal stuff being misused.
It’s best to limit your online contacts to people that you know personally, or if this is not reasonable, use your app’s group contact settings to separate the contacts you know personally and those you do not.

2.     Do a stocktake of privacy settings and use two factor authentication

Every few months, it’s good to do a digital spring-clean: 

• check the privacy settings of each app you’re on. In other words, check who can see your stuff, what they can see, and make changes where necessary.
• If two-factor authentication has not been set up on your apps, set them up now. This is a smart way of protecting your accounts, as it will alert you via either phone or email whenever somebody (including yourself) attempts to log in, and will prevent any unauthorised access.
• untag yourself from images/posts that you don’t want to have connected to you.

3.  Avoid sharing passwords and passcodes

This one cannot be stressed enough. Once a person knows one of your passwords or passcodes, it’s not difficult for them to access all of your accounts (whether you’ve given them access to these or not), and they can cause a lot of drama online on your behalf.
If you know or suspect that somebody knows one of your passwords or passcodes, you should change it immediately and check your app’s settings. (having trouble keeping up with all of your passwords? A password manager may help - check this article for reviews on some of the best: https://www.cnet.com/news/best-password-managers-for-2020/)

4.     Avoid sharing your private details (or other people’s private details) online.

This includes home addresses, phone numbers, and what school you (or they) attend. It’s also important to avoid sharing in public online spaces where you’re going to be and when you’re going to be there (for example, organising a meetup with your schoolmates through a comments section on social media) - you don’t know who’s seeing that information and what they’re going to do with it.

Another online space where your personal data can be misused is when you are offered something for free (like an iPhone or a gift card) in exchange for your personal details. Think twice before sharing your details in such cases. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is - check in with a trusted and informed adult if you’re unsure.

5.     When things don’t go to plan, know that help is available

We want you to know that you will not be in trouble for seeking help (even if you think it’s your fault). You do not have to sort out these issues on your own, and the sooner you get help the easier it is to resolve it.
If this happens, this is what you should do: 

• Collect evidence: take screenshots, save links, download files. 
• Change your password or passcode if necessary.
• Tell a trusted and informed adult: At school, these people are your teachers, House Leaders, Director of Students (Mrs McInerney), Assistant Principal-Wellbeing & Mission (Mr Chifley), Principal (Mrs Holding) or Student Wellbeing Officer (Mrs Mergard).
• If required, report the matter to the social media company or site administrators, and if the material is not removed within 48 hours, report the matter to the eSafety Commissioner (a trusted & informed adult can help with this).

There are also support organisations online who can help with any issues of online safety and wellbeing. These are:

• Kids Helpline (kidshelpline.com.au)
• ParentLine (for parents of children from 0-18 years: parentline.org.au)
• eHeadspace (headspace.org.au)
• eSafety Commissioner (esafety.gov.au)