Dear Parents
Yesterday we officially farewelled our Year 12 students at an assembly and next week they will share a lunch with staff prepared by the Year 11 students. Completing school ends the most significant common event in a young person’s life, at 17 or 18 and after 14 years of schooling everything changes, new routines, the need to actively decide and live your future. We wish our Year 12’s all the best and look forward to seeing where life takes them.
On the complete other side of the coin we are still accepting Kindy enrolments for 2021, a new group commencing their 14 years at school. Commencing Term 4, Mrs Main will be running Prindy classes fortnightly commencing Week 1 to welcome the class of 2021 and to allow parents to become familiar with Jurien Bay District High School.
At the recent P&C meeting the committee looked at putting together a plan for spending and development over the next few years, the aim being to work with the school to address the needs of our community. I urge all parents to become involved with the P&C, an enthusiastic group who clearly want to work to make our school the best it can be.
Last week our students travelled to Dongara for the Interschool Athletics. Our team performed well and was a credit to the school. Thank you to Miss Cameron and Ms Briggs for organising and leading our athletes.
Below is some advice for parents regarding the extremely distressing content that has gone viral online from Kirra Pendergast at Safe on Social Media. Kirra has visited Jurien Bay District High School and is considered an expert in managing Social Media particularly with young people.
This is a challenging topic to discuss with young people. We advise that you be careful not to draw attention to it or stimulate curiosity for a child to search for it.
The content is still online and will take some time to come down. It has been embedded into videos ranging from kittens playing to Mario Cart. These videos are on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and YouTube for Kids.
In talks to primary school age students, I always say, "if you ever see anything yucky online that makes you feel scared, upset or even if it makes you feel a bit weird in the tummy, talk to Mum, Dad or another trusted adult."
With High school students, I always mention similar, but obviously in language to suit the audience. I also let them know if they don't feel comfortable talking to their parents that they can speak with one of the school welfare team, a teacher, another trusted adult, or call Kids Helpline.
Please make sure your children know to speak up.
Tips for Parents:
1. Be as involved in your child's online life as you are their offline life. To them, it is just "life" it is so blurred now there is no definition in the eyes of a young person.
2. Think about the age recommendations; it is not illegal for a child to use social media under the age of 13yrs with their parents' permission but think about what they are being exposed to. When we sign up to use apps, there are extensive terms and conditions of use. By ticking that box accepting them, you are signing a document that puts all the onus back on the user. You are signing up to be a data generating commodity, handing over personal information that can be sold and shared at the app's discretion. When you click "I agree" to most terms and conditions on social media platforms – you give it up by legal contract. And you probably didn't even read them. Most adults don't let alone a child.
Carnegie Mellon researchers estimated that for an average individual to read all the terms and conditions we should – it would take 76 days. So, you could legitimately argue the impossibility of this. Instagram's Terms and Conditions are over 5000 words long. Facebook sits at around 15,000. TikTok has a couple of pages; Google's terms and conditions are shorter than Facebook.
The practice of tech companies is to either: bombard you with so much detail, it is incredibly unrealistic to expect anyone (especially a child) to read through them all, or to create brief terms and conditions that are deceptively simple, and in effect, sign away all rights to your content, and personal information by using vague legal speak. Some of the things they state are:
"you grant us a non-exclusive, transferrable, sub-licensable, royalty-free worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with the app."
Pictures, videos, posts, private messages, ANYTHING you have on your page is licensed to the app and can be sold or shared for media and marketing purposes.
It also includes:
- All device information, your connections, what you share, and what you delete.
- What groups you are members of and what you follow.
- Your location and your IP address and the length of time you spend online.
- How you bank, your billing details, delivery, and home address.
- What your friends post about you.
- Wi-Fi nearby and Bluetooth "handshakes."
- Mobile towers nearby, mobile number, connections speeds
- Your ISP and all the cookies that are stored on your device.
3. Use parental controls where possible to minimise exposure to harmful and distressing content.
4. Engage with them about their favourite social media app and get them to teach you about it so you can at least know the basics. Get them to show you how to block and report so you can be sure they know how to.
5. Put healthy boundaries in place. Don't ban them from their device if they forget to do a household chore or are naughty for something totally unrelated to their device. Do not take it off them if they speak up about something that has happened online because you are scared.
This is the quickest way to drive all the conversations that you want to be having underground. Instead, if you have a healthy boundary like all devices are banned from the bathroom or bedroom. So then if they are caught with their device in either place, you ban them for a week. This way, they will learn that it is safe to speak up about what is going on online without punishment unless they break the rules about device use. Limit use to the family room with younger kids so that you can monitor them.
6. Be a good role model. Keep your screen time in check. There is no use banning the phones from bedrooms if you go to bed with yours each night, for example.
Dave Thomas
Principal
