A thought piece from Director of Senior School (Student Care & Experience), Ms Caroline McCaffrie.
Our students are growing up online—they do not remember a time before the smart phone or social media. For most, laptops have been an educational device throughout their schooling. While having easy and immediate access to information and tools that support learning and communication has many benefits, parents and educators are increasingly aware of the potential downsides.
Concerns are complex and constantly emerging. Our main focus is the access to disturbing content, the risks of interacting with strangers and the inherently distracting nature of apps. As always, we work in partnership with our parents to support their child to safely navigate their online world.
Susan McLean is Australia’s foremost expert in the area of cybersafety and young people. Susan returned to CGGS at the beginning of Term 3, addressing Years 7 and 8 students on the critical issue of cybersafety and informing parents about strategies to support their children to be safe online. Senior students and many within our parent community are familiar with Susan, having heard her messages in previous years. I always learn something new when I listen to her because the online landscape is constantly shifting.
Following Susan’s presentation, Cybersafety homework was provided to students in Years 7 and 8, which is outlined below.
Susan’s parent presentation focused on serious and emerging risks, including sextortion. She outlined how scammers primarily target boys and young men, convincing them to share compromising photos, then blackmailing them for money. This can have tragic consequences, and in extreme cases has caused boys to take their own lives. Susan informed our parents that girls are forming an increasing percentage of victims.
Sextortion is one example of young people being abused by strangers online. Susan also highlighted the risks of young people being contacted by child sex offenders. She explained that the average age of offenders is around 30 and their primary strategy is to cast a wide net when communicating with young people and then focus their attention on whomever responds. According to Susan, Tik Tok is the favoured app for offenders, with Discord and Snapchat also proving problematic. Her top advice for students is to:
Her number one tip for staying safe online is to not interact with strangers. These tips are all part of our Cybersafety homework.
Susan is a frequent contributor to Channel 7’s Sunrise program and her trusted thoughts on this topic are available here.
We strongly encourage parents to be aware of what their children are consuming online—their ‘social media diet’. Apps are designed to be ‘maximally distracting’ so that the app can push relevant, attractive advertising and collect personal information from the user. According to Johann Hari’s book, Stolen Focus, increasingly sophisticated algorithms quickly ‘figure out what will keep you looking, and pump more of that onto your screen to keep you from putting down your phone.’ Hari notes that students who received text messages during a test scored an average of 20% lower than those who did not—indicating the high cognitive cost of distraction.
Algorithms recognise that people generally pay more attention to negative content and promote that to encourage continued scrolling. As a recent investigation by Four Corners discovered, people experiencing body image issues may find their TikTok feeds flooded with eating disorder content. Facebook admitted that Instagram exacerbates body image issues for one in three teen girls. It would be interesting for parents to compare the ‘explore’ function of their Instagram account with what their children see. Susan McLean recounted her experience of a Year 10 girl recently showing her that every suggested post related to vaping. It’s unlikely that this girls’ parents would have been exposed to the same content on their Instagram accounts.
The above issues are concerning for us all, but can have a particular impact on young people. Neuroscience indicates that the teenage brain’s emotional centres are developed before the pre-frontal cortex, which assesses risk and makes judgements. According to Dr Lisa Damour, when a teenager becomes upset, “her supercharged emotions can hijack the whole neurological system.” This may translate into poor decision-making regarding online interactions and reduced capacity to self-regulate screen time. These issues are compounded if young people are sleep deprived due to exposure to artificial light and persistent engagement with social media late at night. As Dr Damour notes, “When we get enough sleep, we can handle most of what life hands us; when we don’t, we become frazzled.”
Each of these factors can significantly impact a young person’s wellbeing and consequently, their capacity to be their best self and make progress in their learning. While we encourage students to take responsibility for appropriate use of technology, the design of social media apps when combined with teenage brain development makes self-regulation extremely challenging. As Tristan Harris, former Google Ethicist testified to the US Senate, “You can try having self-control, but there are a thousand engineers on the other side of the screen working against you.”
At CGGS, our policies acknowledge this dilemma and are designed to minimise distractions during the school day. Students are required to keep phones in their lockers and to put their laptops away during breaks. While Year 11 and 12 students may use their phones at break times, lessons and study periods are mobile-free.
This policy promotes students’ capacity to focus, learn and enjoy the present moment with their peers. Students know that they can contact a parent or carer if needed, but through the appropriate channels. If students find themselves unable to regulate their phone usage, we ask them to hand their device in at the Student Area and to collect it at the end of the day. Another part of our Cybersafety Homework is for our students to keep their devices out of both bedrooms and bathrooms. A family technology agreement can be a good idea to assist our young people with their self-regulation in relation to this.
Cybersafety homework
Cybersafety basics: a checklist for any account you have
Cybersafety challenges
The big questions
The more social media accounts you have, and the more you post or chat online, the longer this homework will take you. Have a think: are there any accounts that you can close or delete, particularly if you are under 13 years old?
What can you do to ensure that your interactions online are positive, and that they promote your safety and the safety of others?
Is there anything that you're concerned about or makes you feel uncomfortable? If so, it's really important that you talk to a trusted adult—a parent/carer, your tutor, or your Head of House are all people at CGGS who can guide you.
Caroline McCaffrie
Director (Student Care & Experience)