Fresh into high school, year 7 students across both campuses at Hastings Secondary College had a cyber safety talk recognising Safer Internet Day on February 5.
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The students were told how posting certain things on the internet may not in fact be as private as they think, along with learning how to identify unsafe behaviours.
Westport campus student Brinley White said the class had been eye opening for her.
“We had to discuss the dangers of the internet and think about the things we should and shouldn’t be posting online,” Brinley said.
“It was eyeopening to find out all the bad things that can happen to people on the internet. But we also learnt about the good things as well.
“It was really good to learn and I think a lot of the things we learnt will help us later on.”
She said that because the online world forms such a big part of students lives the sessions were necessary.
“We had to talk about online bullying and it was good that we learnt about ways we can help people who are being bullied and what to do if we see it happening,” she said.
“Sometimes it can be hard to know who to tell or what to do to help someone and this class was really helpful.”
Jayden McBain also said it was a really interesting class and was glad he got to participate.
“I think it was amazing in a bad way to learn how connected the internet really is and it is shocking how easily someone can find people if they aren’t careful,” Jayden said.
“There are so many apps that you think will be private but really they aren’t so it was good to learn all about that stuff now.”
At the end of the lesson all the students had to pledge to stay safe online, teacher Jemma Stapleton said.
“The main reason for the class was because social media is such a big part of students lives and they need to know how to navigate that,” Ms Stapleton said.
“As much as the class was about telling them about the dangers online, it was about also giving them ways to protect and prevent private information being made public.
“The class was about taking a holistic approach to staying safe online.
“For a lot of these kids they are just now getting exposed to social media and it is important for us to teach them how to keep themselves and their friends safe.”
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