The Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women is providing parents and carers with new tools to help combat cyber-bullying.
Minister for Child Safety, Youth and Women, Di Farmer said free access was now available to online cyber-bullying training and e-resources from Parentline and yourtown.
“This is online training aimed at adults with children or young people at risk of, or who are already the target of, cyber-bullies,” Ms Farmer said.
“We know cyber-bullying is as insidious as it is prevalent. It’s distressing that more than half of young Australians report they’ve experienced psychological distress from cyber-bullying on social media and online chat sites.”
She said social media platforms had been urged to work harder to help create a safer online environment, but social media and easy-to-use privacy settings were just one part of the picture.
“As a parent myself, I know how hard it can be to have the conversations we should have with our teenagers about cyber safety and appropriate online behaviour,” Ms Farmer said.
“That’s where online cyber-bullying training and e-resources from Parentline and yourtown can help to arm parents and carers with the information they need to know about internet bullies and how they operate.”
Ms Farmer said the Government was committed to supporting parents, carers and young people with the skills and knowledge to beat cyber-bullying.
“No one wants their child to be the victim of cyber-bullying, nor the instigator of cruel, nasty and harmful online behaviour,” the Minister said.
“As Queenslanders, we all have a responsibility to make a stand against bullying regardless of whether it occurs in the real or virtual worlds.”
