When ‘can of worms’ turns out to hold snakes

Former cop warns of need to vet apps and pleads with parents and principals to wake up to threat of online predators gathering data or using porn to corrupt and groom schoolkids, even in the classroom

Bulletin

TWO students are staring diligently at the screen before them.

Hunched over the computer that is now compulsory for senior schooling, they are both engrossed in this prelunchtime lesson.

Of course, what they’re learning has nothing to do with the teacher’s lecture. Instead, they are watching

porn.

And they are not alone.

With an Australian study showing 100 per cent of male teens have viewed pornography, with the median first viewing at just age 11 and anecdotally as young as eight, it might not be surprising that devices bought solely for school are also being used for an unhealthy sex education.

But what many – including schools themselves – do not realise is that the educational institution is legally liable for any explicit image seen by any student on any screen while on campus. In fact, parents can sue for any physical, mental and emotional distress caused to students by the school’s breach of its duty of care.

Cyber Safety Solutions founder Susan McLean, who was a member of Victoria Police for 27 years and is Australia’s leading cybersafety expert, says as she has toured the country educating both children and adults on the ever-present online dangers, she has grown increasingly concerned that some schools are not paying enough attention.

While parents are struggling to navigate the minefields of social media and digital devices in the home, trying to protect their children from online predators and cyberbullies alike, our schools are in an ever more precarious position.

She says the educational culture of cover-ups means the institutions are often the last to recognise, let alone address, their failings.

“What we saw this week with St Kevin’s College in Melbourne, this priority of school reputation over student safety, sadly that is still occurring,” says

Ms McLean, who will be speaking at the Resilient Kids Conference on the Gold Coast in May.

(The ABC’s Four Corners reported the school’s headmaster and dean of sport provided references for convicted sex offender Peter Kehoe, but did not provide support to his student victim during the court process. The principal has since resigned and the dean of sport has been stood down).

“It’s a gross generalisation but some Catholic schools, and also evangelical Christian schools to a degree, just still don’t get it … they don’t understand that you don’t just need to react the right way – which many of them don’t – but you need to be proactive from the start. Complying with the law of the land is more important than any religious reasoning.

“I can’t tell you how many schools I’ve been to where someone – a teacher, a parent, a student – said there is a problem but no one will listen. A few years ago in Townsville I had to go and report suspected grooming to the police myself as I was not convinced that the school would do so, despite it being legally required.

“In this day and age, that is not good enough. Add in the whole new dimension of digital devices on campus and we have a growing problem.

“When I look at how some schools are handling devices, I have to say that it’s gobsmacking how poorly it is done.”

Ms McLean says although she is encouraged that more schools are restricting the personal use of mobile phones, the use of BYOD (bring your own device) computers and tablets is the next battleground.

She says simply having students sign a user agreement does not indemnify a school from harm caused by that device.

She says random checks should be conducted on the devices regularly.

“At a base level, you assume the school has a secure internet access with filters, but students can still tether to a phone in their locker or can use a SIM card if they have a tablet.

“They can also simply download porn at home and then show it at school. If this happens to your child, if they are shown explicit images at school, they might need to see a psychologist, they might suffer distress and you can sue that school for breach of duty of care because your child suffered an injury and the school was not a safe place to learn.

“I’ve explained this to principals before and they say, ‘oh no, our lawyer says we don’t need to worry’ and I say ‘sack your legal adviser’. You do need to worry.

“I know this is really tough for schools, just like it’s tough for parents, but we have to get on the front foot. We can’t just brush it under the carpet because the truth will come out.

“Parents need to know that when their child goes to school, they are not going to be exposed to porn.

“The best solution is to provide school devices, but if it’s BYOD, we need to see regular but random checks on every device.”

Ms McLean says a lack of proper cyber policy at some schools means children are endangered, not just from porn but predators.

In fact, she says she was shocked to learn that primary teachers at one Gold Coast school were told it was compulsory to create a public Instagram account where they must post photos of students and their classes.

“I mean, this is just ridiculous. Here we have Argos (the Queensland Police online child exploitation team) telling parents not to post photos of kids in their school uniform for safety’s sake, but then the school is doing it for them,’’ she says.

“It doesn’t matter whether you have signed a form giving permission for your child’s face to be shown, it’s putting your child in danger.

“I know some of the teachers were trying to protect the kids by putting an emoji over their face, but it’s not enough. These are all public photos. I could search them all using the name of the school and when I looked at who else was looking, it was pretty horrifying.

“Creepy old men, lots of corporate companies getting access to the students.

“But apparently complaints from staff are falling on deaf ears.

“We’re also seeing students being told to use certain apps for school and the policies around this are nowhere near vigorous enough.

“If the school is using an app then there needs to be a thorough risk assessment done, an assessment of the educational merit, they need to seek explicit parent approval and account for what

‘Teachers say to me banning phones is the best decision’

data is being collected and by whom. This is a whole new can of worms we’ve opened, and those worms are turning out to be snakes.”

Ms McLean says the new digital world means no child can ever be completely safe.

It is her job to educate parents and teachers on how to best avoid dangers.

She says that might mean making unpopular decisions and conducting timeconsuming practices, but it is far better than the alternative.

“It’s hard, I get it. The pressure is on the kids to sign up, the pressure is on the parents to let them join in and the pressure is on the schools to keep up,’’ she says.

“But what I’ve actually found is that saying ‘no’ can be such a relief to the kids. They want boundaries. And they love being able to blame their parents for it – you can be the bad guy to be the good guy.

“I have had so many teachers and principals say to me that banning phones is the single best decision ever made in their lives. And the kids are just relieved, there is no more pressure. Parents are relieved too, they don’t have to force their kids to be the odd one out. Rules and regulations are what kids need, not access to the world from their phone or their laptop.

“When I speak to kids, it’s amazing the reaction that I get. They’re not really comfortable with all of the things they have been told they can use. When they get these warnings, when they’re told they can switch off, it’s a relief.

“A bunch of teens gave me a standing ovation just this morning. They don’t want to be out there on their own.”

Ms McLean says although the world of cyber safety seems new, she actually worked her first digital case in February 1994.

Since then, she has been trained by the FBI, studied at universities around the world, is the most highly qualified of the original Federal Government eSafety certified educators and is consulted by Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube on issues affecting Australian children.

“In February 1994 I got the case of some Year 8 girls who were engaging in cyberbullying, not that we called it that then, in a sex chat room,” she says.

“From then it’s just been a constant upskilling as this world has exploded. It’s fascinating and terrifying what is happening and I’m just so aware of keeping up with the changes so that I can communicate the risks to kids, parents and schools.

“I speak to social media companies regularly, I work closely with them – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and

Google. They talk to me about what changes need to be made. The biggest problem is the explosion in child grooming. Some of it is simple maths. We have more people, more apps, more platforms and more opportunity.

“What worries me is the age that kids are being introduced to the online world. The younger you are, the more at risk you are. If you have a 16-year-old and an eight-year-old, which one are you going to be able to talk into doing some chores? The eight-year-old.

“It’s far easier to push them around, to convince them to do something. That’s why when these apps say the minimum user age is 13, parents need to abide by that.

“It’s a huge shift I’ve seen during my time in this space. The other thing is the extreme bullying. To tell someone they’re fat, ugly and a loser is almost kind compared to the messages that kids are getting to ‘go kill yourself’.

“It’s why we all need to get on the front foot.”

Ms McLean says one of the most effective techniques in protecting children would be to return to an old-school curriculum topic of protective behaviours.

She says there is no longer an emphasis on this subject in schools, whereas students were once explicitly taught how to keep themselves safe.

“It surprises me that 20 years ago we were teaching this stuff, like how to identify warning signs in your body, ensuring you have five adults to tell if you have a problem, but now we seem to have dropped the ball,’’ she says.

“This is some basic information that kids need to know. What we’ve seen at St Kevin’s shows that not everyone naturally does the right thing. We need to explicitly say it, we need to make sure our kids know what to tell and who to tell.

“We need to do more and we need to do it better.

“Schools need to understand that even if they’re not doing it for the kids, and it’s sad if they don’t, they need to do it for themselves.”