New anti-terrorism law will give principals power to ban cyber bullies
A RADICAL increase in severe cyber-bullying has led to tough new laws where student aggressors will be suspended for out-of-school online attacks. See our INTERACTIVE graphic for the full list.
NSW
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STUDENTS who commit serious acts of cyber-bullying outside of school hours will face suspension under tough new laws that will combat growing concerns about the “epidemic” of online threats.
Under changes to be brought in by Education Minister Rob Stokes the freshly minted legislation — originally designed as an anti-terror measure — will be used to give principals authority to ban any student if there is a “significant risk” they could be violent or seriously threatening towards schoolmates, teachers or parents.
It will apply to cyber-bullying and sexting both in and out of school.
This has previously been a major concern for schools, which have had no powers to clamp down on what students were sending online in their free time.
The Saturday Telegraph has learned guidelines for these expanded powers are being worked through with principals and will come into force in the next few months.
Both teachers and the schools they work at have become prime targets for sickening extreme cyber-bullying recently, receiving a torrent of threats, abuse and character assassination on social media.
They have become victims of blackmail and extortion attempts for “sexual favours” or money, reports from government primary and secondary schools show.
In one particularly disturbing case some people hacked a female staff member’s Education Department online portal and created a false account in her name. Police were called after “inappropriate” images of the woman were posted online and she found her pay was not going into her bank account.
“While smartphones offer an amazing connection to the world, that connectivity can also be used to cause pain for other students and disrupt teaching and learning in new ways not considered a decade ago,” Mr Stokes said.
The latest data collated by the NSW Department of Education shows serious incidents involving technology soared by 50 per cent to 226 in 2016 compared with 151 the previous year.
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The Education Amendment (School Safety) Bill 2017 will extend school disciplinary powers to student conduct that seriously affects — or threatens to — the health or safety of students or staff, even if the conduct occurs outside school grounds or school hours.
It will cover serious cyber-bullying, sexual assault, violent extremism and support for terrorism. Students can be suspended until the risk to health and safety is assessed.
“A reason why we introduced the Education Amendment (School Safety) Bill last year was to recognise the reach of technology now to hurt others in schools beyond the school gate,” Mr Stokes said.
And he said access to smartphones for non-educational purposes should be prohibited in primary schools unless there were extraordinary medical and family reasons.
“Already some primary schools are requiring students to leave their smartphones in their school bags when they arrive at school,” Mr Stokes said.
“But even in the case of high school students, the basic premise should be that there is no role for smartphones inside the school gate unless the device is needed for academic reasons.”
Susie Boyd, president of the Parents and Citizens’ Federation, said she was highly concerned about how widespread cyber-bullying had become.
“Bullying has reached epidemic proportion within social media,” Ms Boyd said.
“Bullying is a society issue and the increase in self-harm of our youth requires a whole-of-nation approach.”
The NSW Parents’ Council urged Prime Minister Turnbull to look at duplicating laws enacted in Europe that force social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter to remove offensive posts.
“The sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms now available make such proactive monitoring and removal very achievable,” executive officer Stephen Grieve said. “We call on the government to require the companies that own these platforms, that are so often the means of victimising our children, to take responsibility for policing their platforms.”
And Chris Presland, president of the NSW Secondary Schools’ Council, said cyber-bullying was “very prevalent” with some of it stemming from parents getting involved in slanging matches online.
“Students are bringing in (to school) reams of screen shots of abusive and offensive language and threats of aggressive behaviour,” he said. “The expectation is that schools need to do more but this is a 24/7 problem.”
Taking the lesson home
Mother-of-two Ellie Luff said she took a valuable lesson home from a cyber-safety address at her daughter Jessica’s school, where a police officer shocked the audience when she told them each of their children would be followed by at least one “groomer” during online activity.
“I asked our children to tell me who their friends were on (social media site) Instagram and if there was anyone they didn’t know they would not be allowed to follow them,” she said.
“We have a rule that at 9.30 every night we turn off the (computer) modem. The question to ask is would you let your children walk around at 9.30 at night and talk to strangers. Of course, not,” Ms Luff said.
“In that situation you have no control so if Jess has to work later at night on the computer we do it downstairs in the kitchen or lounge room.
“We do talk to our kids about it (cyber-safety) but our school, St Andrew’s Cathedral School, is very proactive and professional, bringing in police and other experts to talk about the issues.”
“Communication with the children and being open about everything I feel is the best way to go.”
A spokesman for the NSW Department of Education said all public schools were required to have an anti-bullying plan developed in consultation with parents and the school community.