School kids to be warned about online porn, sexting, identity theft in new cyber-safety lessons

New school rules to combat sexting, identity theft and cyber-bullying will be rolled out in Australian schools. Have your say.

Children as young as four will be taught about online pornography, fake news and cyber fraud, under new e-safety lessons endorsed by the federal government.

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner has launched new lesson plans for schools to make kids “cyber-smart’’ and help them tell “fact from fiction’’.

The online etiquette classes will teach children how to report online abuse, avoid scams and protect against identity theft.

The lessons, to begin in the first year of school, will be tailored to age groups, with young children warned about online stranger danger and older teenagers taught the legal issues around online pornography.

Students will be shown how to detect fake news by “evaluating content for truthfulness and reliability.’’

They will learn that “echo chambers’’ or “filter bubbles” on social media can “limit users to only hearing opinions that are similar to their own’’.

hildren as young as four will be taught about online pornography, fake news and cyber fraud, under new e-safety lessons endorsed by the federal government. Picture: Supplied

The lessons will warn children about online risks, including exposure to violence or pornography, sexting, contact from strangers and online sexual abuse.

Kids will be taught that spending too much time online can interfere with homework, relationships or sleep.

“Digital resilience and proactive coping strategies’’ will be taught to help limit the distress caused by online trolls and bullies.

“A resilient student is able to take control of their social media experience by blocking and reporting upsetting content to the appropriate social media site,’’ the guidelines state.

The lessons will show students how to respond to “inappropriate posts and nasty comments’’.

Primary school students will be asked to share examples of what makes them feel happy, excited, confused, scared or sad when they go online.

Teenagers in high school will discuss who they follow online, why they follow them and the impact they have in their everyday lives.

Children will be taught to “avoid over-sharing without permission’’, how to keep one-to-one communications private, and ways of protecting personal information online.

Technical lessons will show kids how to use privacy settings to protect their “digital footprints’’ and personal reputation.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the first online safety education framework for Australian schools would help keep children safe.

“Now, more than ever, we need to ensure that young Australians are consistently being armed with the resilience and critical reasoning skills they need to discern online fact from fiction, to effectively respond to abuse and unwanted contact, and to ultimately manage online conflict,’’ she said.

Originally published as School kids to be warned about online porn, sexting, identity theft in new cyber-safety lessons