CYBER safety author and spokesperson, Susan McLean, will deliver three seminars in Mount Isa next week to schools and the community about staying safe online.
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Susan will attend Good Shepherd Catholic College, St Kieran’s Catholic Primary School and St Joseph’s Catholic School and host a community seminar on Tuesday evening.
“I look forward and coming to Mount Isa to discuss safety solutions to students, parents and community members,” she said.
On Wednesday Susan will discuss safety at the primary schools and will include, security, what is cyber bullying, how does it happen, what to do if it happens.
Susan will speak to the secondary school on Tuesday and will cover cyber bullying, digital reputation, sexting, online predators, how to secure your social media page, what the problems look like and what are crimes.
At the community seminar the same concepts will be pitched and will include what adults can do to help children that live with them, the children that they teach or interact with.
“I want to make sure all aspects of the community can come together and listen to what this practice is and take it back to their organisation or household,” she said.
“I have dealt with all of these issues from the ages of seven or eight. Community members need to come along to know how to protect their child from the influences of other children.
“Don’t think the predators can’t reach your children because you live in Mount Isa. I want to see every adult in the community at my seminar, everyone has a role to keep children of Mount Isa safe.”
Susan is currently the only person in Australia with her level of skills, expertise and qualifications. Susan was a Victorian Police Officer in Melbourne for 27 years and experienced technology being misused against a 13-year-old girl. She described the situation, a group of school girls went online, created an account to advertise a classmates for free sex; listing a photo of the girl and her address. Susan was part of a team that had to relocate the family to a motel, to stop the endless stream of men attending the property.
“Blind trusting your child is wrong, as much as we hope and think our children don’t have problems, I can personally tell you they do.
“The problems I see anywhere else I will see in Mount Isa and it naive to think ‘Not my child’. We need everyone to be there supporting each other and supporting this initiative.”
The free community seminar is an adults only event and will be held at Lumen Christi Centre at Good Shepherd Catholic College on Tuesday April 10 from 6pm to 8pm. For more details contact Good Shepherd Catholic College on 4743 2509.
