The Australian Federal Police (AFP) and other police across the nation have joined forces to launch new resources and an online safety challenge to increase the online safety of Australia’s children.
AFP Assistant Commissioner at the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, (ACCCE) and Child Protection Operations, Lesa Gale said the COVID-19 pandemic presented a number of online safety challenges for children and young people.
“Prevention is critical in countering the exploitation of children online, yet ACCCE research published earlier this year revealed that information seeking and discussion about online children sexual exploitation is generally only undertaken in response to a specific event,” Assistant Commissioner Gale said.
“We want to reassure the community that we have bolstered our efforts, sharing of information and enhanced coordination to investigate online child sexual exploitation.”
She said the forces had released the national online safety challenge to help safeguard families against online exploitation, and the new online safety home learning resources for parents and carers as part of the ThinkUKnow program.
She said the seven-day online safety challenge, unveiled by the police involves a simple daily simple task for parents and carers to complete as a way of ‘kick-starting’ their journey in helping protect their children.
Assistant Commissioner Gale said the challenge could be accepted by visiting www.accce.gov.au or Facebook here or Twitter here.
She said the home learning activity packs were also available to support parents and carers by addressing the challenges associated with children spending more time online.
The activity packs can be accessed at this PS News link.
