To all parents and carers

The safety and wellbeing of our students in the highest priority for Foxwell State Secondary College community. I write seeking the support of our school community in helping us address some recent concerns, which have come to our attention. These concerns relate to the on-line behaviours of some of our young people, which have the potential to impact on their safety and wellbeing, both at school and at home.

Over the last week, we have been speaking with our students, as a whole cohort, regarding our concerns in an attempt to educate them in being responsible digital citizens who demonstrate respect and integrity.

We have been working through a number of incidents this week and have been directly communicating with families to resolve conflicts and to address unacceptable behaviours that have arisen. We appreciate the support we have received and the team approach we have built to support our young people to make better choices regarding their on-line behaviour.

As a community we acknowledge that technology plays a vital role in how young people maintain their friendships and communicate with those closest to them.

We know that young people are quick to take up the latest developments in technology and are often the first to know when something new comes along, whether it be new apps, websites or social media platforms. Once our young people become aware, they are prone to experiment with and experience these new developments. Our young people have access to the internet on many technological devices such as, but not limited to, their iPads, smartphones and gaming consoles.

Technology is no different to anything else a young person encounters. They will make mistakes, and we need to be able to support them through these experiences, arm them with the right information, and empower them to make the right choices.

While our young people are on-line, they might see content that is not age appropriate or be exposed to new concepts. This is particularly the case when our young people fail to access age-appropriate content. Some content being accessed may be illegal and inappropriate.  We are aware of cases of this within our community. It is important to prevent young people from accessing inappropriate material because it may be psychologically harmful.

It is important that we reinforce with our young people that illegal activities conducted online can be traced by police and the students may be held criminally responsible for their actions.

There are ways to reduce exposure to inappropriate content and the harm it may cause. Safe searching tips and parental controls may be useful. Please discuss safe internet use and talk to your child about what they should do if something upsets them online.

We need to help young people understand how to search safely, interact safely and where they can go to report prohibited content or seek support for inappropriate content they may come across.

Some tips, for parents/guardians, that may be helpful in keeping our young people safe include:

• keeping computers and devices in a central room of the house so adults can easily see what the young person is doing on-line;
• knowing all passwords for your child’s device and regularly checking what they are searching, sending or receiving. Ensure that you have established rules around retaining the search history;
• knowing where and when your child might have access to the internet (friend’s house, school or at home) and ensuring that this access is supervised;
• knowing who your child is talking to online;
• staying up-to-date and informed about the apps and sites your child may access;
• enacting parental controls and filters;
• ensuring that your child is not accessing sites that are illegal for their age, eg TikTok (13+), SnapChat (13+), Facebook (13+), Facebook Messenger (13+), Omeagle (18+), pornography (18+).

Educating our young people is important and focussing on the following elements in conversations with them may help to safeguard from potential on-line risks:

• using the most secure privacy setting for online accounts;
• knowing what information should never be shared online;
• only having people they know and trust as online friends or contacts;
• before they download and install an app, checking which features of the device (such as the GPS function) the app wants permission to access.

An area of recent concern for us is social media, apps, chat and messaging. Although these are excellent ways for young people to communicate online; they can also be perilous as students often engage with people they do not know or engage inappropriately with people they do know. On-line grooming and stalking are some of the things that can occur on these services, and parents and carers of young people need to be aware of this possibility. An open on-line environment such as a public chatroom means that anyone can participate in a conversation. One such app which has most recently come to our attention is Omeagle (an over-18 adult chat group).

Our young people are using direct messaging, instant messaging and chatrooms regularly. These forums can become the platform for grooming, cyber-bulling, threats of violence and sharing of inappropriate images and videos. It is important for our young people to remember that anything that is posted on-line can become permanent; can be copied and re-posted with or without the owner's knowledge and /or consent. Once something goes online, there is very little chance of deleting it completely. Many young people don’t realise that what they post online could impact their reputation in the future.

We all have a responsibility in maintaining the safety and wellbeing of our young people. As a school, we will act to investigate on-line behaviours of students which negatively impact the good order and management of the school. This is when the on-line conduct, threats or intimidation or abuse have created or are likely to create a risk within the school environment. We will also investigate behaviours which originate from the school premises during school hours. For some matters, we will involve the Queensland Police Service or other external agencies to assist. For matters occurring outside of school hours that do not have the potential to impact on the good order and management of the school or risk, or pose a threat to students or staff, we will not become involved, as this is a matter for parents to directly manage. Parents are able to involve agencies such as Queensland Police Service or make a report to the eSafety commissioner, https://www.esafety.gov.au/ if appropriate.

Can I urge you to take the online safety and wellbeing of your children seriously. We have been informed that this issue is of serious concern to the Queensland Police and is affecting all schools across the Gold Coast and broader area. The main age group of concern at present is children between 10 – 13 years of age. As you are aware, I take risks to our students seriously and do not ever wish to sweep issues under the carpet. We are responding with proactive and reactive strategies to this serious risk to the young people in our communities, and we ask you to assist us by being vigilant.

If you are seeking more information, an excellent source (and the source used to inform advice in this email) is the Australian Federal Police website https://www.thinkuknow.org.au/index.php/

Should you have any concerns please feel free to contact us. 

Kind regards

Kym Amor