The Australian Federal Police (AFP) program for educating young Australians on how to be safe on the internet attracted a record number of students in 2017-18.
According to the AFP’s ThinkUKnow Corporate Report 2017-18, the Force’s ‘ThinkUKnow’ presentations were attended by almost 200,000 students across the country who received online safety education, a 55 per cent increase on the year before.
ThinkUKnow was established in 2009 and is Australia’s first and only nationally-delivered, law enforcement-led crime prevention program.
Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton welcomed the report saying it highlighted a strong and growing appetite for online safety education in Australia’s schools and communities.
“The program is giving many more children, teachers, parents and carers the tools to manage challenges posed by new and emerging technologies, from sharing personal content and online grooming to cyberbullying and illegal content,” Mr Dutton said.
“It uses real law enforcement case studies and focuses on what young people do online, the challenges and threats they may face and what they can do if something goes wrong.”
He said the AFP and State and Territory police played an essential role in keeping Australians safe online.
He said the AFP expanded ThinkUKnow to regional Australia in 2017-18 with presentations in Groote, Eylandt, Port Augusta, Ballarat, Rockhampton, Cairns, Kalgoorlie and Karratha.
The report shows that among the highlights for the year were: 2,711 presentations delivered to 196,881 students; 485 presentations delivered to 17,144 parents, carers and teachers; 855 adult and youth presenters trained across Australia; and 200 people in regional NSW and Victoria receiving combined AFP and Commonwealth Bank-delivered online safety and security presentations.
The ThinkUKnow program is a partnership between the AFP, Microsoft Australia, Datacom and the Commonwealth Bank, and is delivered in a collaboration with all State and Territory police forces, as well as Neighbourhood Watch Australia and the 6-page ThinkUKnow Corporate Report 2017-18 can be accessed at this PS News link.
