New uniforms washed and ironed. New shoes are shined. Pencil cases are full of coloured pencils and pens. New lunch boxes, water bottles and bags are filled and our children are ready for learning. The start of the school year can be an exciting time for both parents and students. It’s time for families to settle back in to the term time routine and for all of our social media feeds to be full of back to school pics. However, before you fill your friends feed, can I ask you to take a moment first.

Taking photos of our children create great opportunities, not only to capture memories but also to teach them about consent and respect online. It gives us as parents the opportunity to have conversations about why we would want to share their photos and also to talk about where the photos will go and what the potential consequences are. By having these conversations often and early, we can help children and young people develop an awareness of some of the strengths and pitfalls of having their images online. As we model the courtesy of asking before we share their image online, we also need to model not sharing if our children say “no”. While this can be frustrating, hopefully, this will become part of the way our children approach online images so that they can be a little more careful about the way they share their own or their friends images online.

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner recommends the following steps that you can take to reduce the possibility of exposure to harm.

1. Avoid sharing photos and videos that contain personal details, such as full names, personal contact information, or uniforms that identify a location. (If in a school of sporting team uniform, try to avoid the crest if possible)

2. Avoid adding comments to photos that identify locations, e.g. street address, the name of the school your child is attending, or even identifying features in front of your home.

3. Only share with people who you really know and trust. Rather than posting to all of your friends on social media, be selective and use the privacy settings on your social media platform. Also, be aware that if one of your friends likes your picture, it may also become visible to their friends. If you’re not comfortable with this, you might reconsider how you share your child’s image.

4. Always check with other parents before posting and sharing images which include their children.

5. Be mindful of metadata—most digital photos contain information about the time, date and GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken. Some social media platforms automatically hide or remove this data, so do your homework and know how much info you’re sharing.

For more helpful information about the digital environment and how to help your child have safe and enjoyable online experiences visit iParent.

According to a 2017 study, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 100% of the young men and 82% of the young women (aged 15-29) had viewed pornography. 38% of viewing pornography was through a Smartphone and 87% was viewed alone. Children and Teens with smart devices behind closed doors can be a recipe for trouble…

While pornography is not going away, it simply makes too much money for too many people, it is also becoming more easily available and increasingly violent. Another study found that 88% of scenes contained physical violence and 87% of that violence was directed at females.

The Pornography Industry is telling a stream of lies to children and young people about relationships. Built on exploitation and degradation and disguised as pleasure,  when children and teenagers listen to these lies it can greatly damage their potential for safe and healthy future relationships. Pornography has been linked to increased domestic violence, sexual assault, poor mental health, human trafficking and slavery, as well as sexual dysfunction at a lower age.

Below are some articles from iParent with some ideas on how you can navigate conversations around pornography with your children. As parents, if we don’t talk to our children about this issue, I know of an industry who is more than happy to on our behalf…

• 6 Strategies for when your child accidentally finds pornography online.
• How to talk to under 8’s about pornography
• Talking to your 8 – 12 year old about pornography
• Talking to teens about pornography

Sometimes your child just needs to let someone know there’s something they are concerned about. One mode of communication available to our students is to visit kings.concern.net.au.

This simple mode of communication is available to students during term time and has been a very helpful way for us to get the right person in contact with your child to help navigate the issues that were concerning them.

It is aimed at online concerns, especially since they often occur off-site and we have been able to help students since implementation last year with issues ranging from lost pencil cases, school-yard name-calling, harrassment via social media and friendship issues right up to disclosures of self-harm or a student concerned that their friend may be suicidal.

Letting us know about an online concern is simple. Your child follows the following 4 easy steps:

1. Go to the King’s Concern website, which has a link on every child’s Compass page and is accessible anywhere that has an internet connection.

2. Click on the coloured face that matches the level of concern.
3. Enter their Name, School email address and a description of the concern.
4. Click “I’m not a robot” and then send.

This sends an email to both myself, as the eSafety coordinator, and our Student Welfare team so that we can get the correct person in contact with your child to help with the concern as quickly as possible.

These messages are always kept confidential. This is especially important if a student is concerned for a friend, it is a way that we can get help for their friend without ever letting them know who asked for the help.

I’ll talk about this on Middle School assembly this week, why don’t you ask your child what they would do if something online was worrying them and see if they mention Concern?

I hope your child never needs it, but if they do, King’s Concern is one way we hope be able to help.

A good night’s sleep is essential for productive study in two main ways. Firstly, a well-rested brain is a brain that is able to focus it’s attention and therefore is able to learn efficiently. Secondly, during R.E.M. (Rapid Eye Movement) or deep sleep, the brain repairs itself and transfers new information from short-term to long-term memory, which is one of the most important parts of effective learning.  (After all, if you learn something today but forget it before tomorrow, it was a bit of a waste of time and effort.) As well as being an important ingredient for effective learning, a good sleep cycle “is the foundation of all physical and mental health,” Dr Sarah Blunden (South Australian sleep researcher).

The most important ingredient for a good night’s sleep is melatonin. It helps the body get into a good sleep cycle and is often what makes you start to feel tired in the evening. As the sun goes down, and the daylight fades away, your body naturally begins to produce melatonin. This gives your brain and body the signal that it is time to sleep and go into repair mode after all the learning and activity of the day.

Unfortunately for us, light from digital screens in the evening can affect melatonin production. This gives your brain and body the impression you aren’t ready for sleep. The screens also emit light that tricks the brain into thinking that it is still daytime. This interrupts a normal sleep cycle and can contribute to insomnia or sleep deprivation. This is the same trick that commercial florists use to keep roses flowering both in and out of season. Sneaky florists…

Now that the school holidays are over, and your children have had the chance to binge-watch and catch up on a few seasons of their favourite shows on Netflix or Stan, it is time for their brains to get back into efficient learning mode. Research suggests that in order to get effective sleep, screens should be turned off at least an hour before bedtime so that the body has a chance to produce the correct Melatonin levels.

Let’s work together and remind them to turn off the screens, so they can sleep well, to prepare for effective and efficient study this semester.