November 22, 2022
The holidays provide a welcome and well-earned break for both students and school staff. For some students, that free time might mean family road trips, long days at the beach, outdoor games, and healthy activities with their friends. But for many, it means endless hours on digital devices.
More time online means more exposure to potential risks and wellbeing concerns, including online bullying, predatory behaviour, gaming addiction, and social exclusion. Deep digital immersion also has the potential for students to develop unhealthy digital habits that invariably find their way back into classrooms come day one. Schools then have the challenging task of guiding students back to positive behaviours to ensure learning environments are safe and without distractions.
Promoting Positive Digital Behaviour
See our in-depth guide for more info on fostering positive digital behaviours and engaging your whole school community in online safety these holidays.
By engaging and educating parents and students before and during the holidays, schools can foster positive digital behaviours, help mitigate safety risks and ensure students return to school ready to learn.
To help you, we have provided three student and three parent tips that you can implement before the end of the school year. These build on our more in-depth advice for promoting positive digital behaviours.
Use your school newsletter or social media channels to share updates with helpful digital safety advice and parental guidance. Not only does this help to upskill parents to manage digital behaviour and online safety, but it also serves to keep online safety front-of-mind over the school holidays.
Most parents want to ensure their home is set up for online safety but don’t know where to begin. Help your parents by sharing our guide on Setting Up Your Home for Online Safety. Our simple ABC model is practical and effective guidance for parents to create a safe online environment for their families.
This parent guide and many more are available in our Online Safety Hubs for Linewize Community schools.
Both the eSafety Commissioner in Australia and Netsafe in New Zealand recommend parental control tools to keep kids safe online. Parental controls are software tools that allow parents to monitor and limit what their child sees and does online.
Encouraging parents to use these tools not only results in safer online experiences for their children but also supports the work done by your school in developing healthier online habits and better digital citizens. Linewize Community includes free parental controls for families.
Want help engaging and empowering your community in online safety?
Linewize Community includes free parental control tools and a school-branded Online Safety Hub - filled with practical online safety information. The Hub has guides on online bullying, pornography, gaming, online predators, and much more that are easy to share with your school community.
LEARN ABOUT LINEWIZE COMMUNITY
Help your students create a list of tech-minimal or tech-free activities they can engage in when they get bored over the holidays. Encourage them to try and tick off as many activities as they can over the break.
Encourage students to include adult family members in their digital lives by tasking them with teaching a grandparent or other adult family member how to use their favourite game or social media platform.
Before the break, have each student identify the one platform or app they would like to practice spending less time on over the holidays. Suggest they keep a log of how much time they spend on that platform to track against their goals.
Creating Powerful Parent Partnerships in Online Safety - A Guide for Schools
Strategies to help your school prepare for making powerful partnerships that will drive cyber safety success for your school community.
A School’s Guide to Promoting Positive Digital Behaviours During the Holidays
An in-depth guide for schools on promoting positive digital behaviours and engaging your whole school community in online safety these holidays.
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