School students across South Australia will be taught about online safety and the dangers of social media as part of the State Government’s reforms to the child safety curriculum.
South Australian schools will deliver an evidence-based program focused on preventing or mitigating issues associated with online safety, cyberbullying, body image, mental health and wellbeing.
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas outlined the new education initiative during his address to the South Australian leg of the two-day Social Media Summit in Adelaide on 11 October, co-hosted by the South Australian and New South Wales governments.
The curriculum will have added into it for the first time content on coercive control, strategies for detecting deepfakes, understanding artificial intelligence and the impact of negative online influencers.
It has also been strengthened and updated around contemporary online issues including recognising and reporting image-based abuse and sextortion, cyber bullying, privacy and understanding how to detect scams and fake news.
Educating students about the risks posed by unsafe or inappropriate online behaviour and engagement will be addressed, along with providing strategies for students to seek support.
The Department for Education has worked closely with the eSafety Commissioner, and the Australian Federal Police (AFP)-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) in developing the curriculum.
The curriculum is mandated in all Education Department and Catholic Education sites and is used by schools from the Association of Independent Schools SA, with the new curriculum also to be taught in those schools.
This is part of wider education initiatives to support schools managing this complex area and follows on from the banning of student use of mobile phones in all public schools from mid-2023.
And, it follows moves by the State Government to ban children from using social media, which have subsequently been adopted by the Commonwealth.
A recent survey of staff, students, and families was conducted in the wake of the first year of a full mobile phone ban, found that more than three-quarters of 3,000 respondents said it was having a positive impact.
When staff were asked what they had observed about different aspects of school life since the ban was introduced, they said:
- More than three-quarters reported that the time they spent on asking students to put devices away or following up issues with phones had decreased
- Two-thirds reported that students’ focus and engagement during learning time had increased more than 70 per cent
- An increased level of positive break-time activity such as social interaction, play, physical activity, and interest in lunchtime clubs.
“We must do everything we can to protect our children,” Premier Peter Malinauskas said.
“The State Government has already banned mobile phones in schools, we have made significant moves towards banning social media for children, and now we are doing what we can to educate our children about the harms of social media.
“The evidence is clear, social media is causing our children harm. Knowledge is power, and we are taking a proactive approach to ensure our young people are well equipped for the world they are growing up in,” Mr Malinauskas said.
Minister for Education Blair Boyer said staff and school leaders have also expressed that schools are continuing to need to provide support with social media issues occurring outside of school hours.
“Schools can’t solve these issues alone, but education has a key role to play in supporting our children and young people to stay safe, focus on learning and build healthy, respectful relationships,” he said.
“This initiative will build on the strong outcomes we are seeing from our ban on students using mobile phones at schools and provide further support for families trying to tackle the negative impacts of social media.”
The South Australian component of the summit was held in Adelaide on 11 October, following the NSW Government’s sessions in Sydney on 10 October, and featured ASIO Director Mike Burgess AM and internationally-renowned social psychologist and best-selling author Jonathan Haidt.
More reading: Mobile phone ban in SA driving decline in school incidents
