In the health online behaviours, I have learnt you need to stand up to negative online behaviours, be empathetic to others online and be an Upstander (A helpful Bystander). Even though I don’t have any social media like Instagram and Facebook, I have changed my online behaviours by reaching out to others when necessary and being more respectful when possible. Online bullying can cause things like anxiety, depression, self-harm and low self-esteem in children (and anyone) who uses social media.

Online communication should be a safe environment for people, not like a kindy playground, where people are always getting hurt, bullied and excluded. I would like to see everyone being more respectful online, no cyberbullying and more empathy. I think it is a great idea for schools (including ASC) to be teaching this subject because it can slowly improve negative behaviours online by teaching people to be more accepting of other people’s differences and opinions.

It can also make students more aware of this behaviour and how to stop it and stand up to people who are acting negatively online. I liked how we learned to be nicer and kinder online, which can help us in real life, so we can be nicer altogether. As we move on to the future of technology, people will start using it more in general, for jobs, careers, and of course, socializing. We need to learn eSafety so we can be safe while doing all this online.

In our talk from the cyber policeman earlier this year, he talked about a young boy who lost $3000 from being scammed from someone online, because he didn’t know how to respond to the scammer, who was pretending to be a 12-year-old kid but was actually in his 40s. This does definitely not happen every day, but if we don’t know how to be eSafe, this can happen to us.