Central Coast pre-schoolers receive online safety lessons thanks to new partnerships

Pre-schoolers on the New South Wales Central Coast will benefit from vital education on the importance of safety in an online environment thanks to a new book and app funded by a $90,000 grant from the Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation.

The book was written by KIDS Foundation CEO and Founder Dr Susie O’Neill. The books will be distributed to over 26,000 children at 650 pre-schools across the Hunter, Central Coast, Mid North Coast, Central West, New England and the Northern Rivers regions.

Jennifer Leslie, Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation Chair, said the book and app would prove “a wonderful educational resource for children, parents and educators”.

“In 2022, staying safe online is a critical life skill to teach our children, which means we need to ensure parents and educators know how to speak to children about the best ways to interact in an online environment, and the red flags they should be aware of.”

Dr O’Neill wholeheartedly agrees, saying children should be encouraged to speak up if they feel something isn’t right or they experience something out of the ordinary while online.

“These new tools share the importance of teaching children to use devices in shared zones around the home, setting time limits for online use and making sure adults maintain a dialogue around online safety,” she said.

“We love that Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation has given KIDS the opportunity to put our eSafety program out to 26,000 preschool children, aged four to six years, to navigate and use the internet safely, reducing the threats and risks.”

Beloved KIDS Foundation mascot “SeeMore Safety” paid a visit to a local pre-school recently to debut the book alongside Susie, Jennifer and other special guests.

The book stars SeeMore, who takes children to visit his friend “Netys” (AKA Safety Net) to learn all about the importance of eSafety and the three eSafety rules:

• Be safe
• Be kind
• Make good choices online.

Also being launched is the SeeMore Safety app, which integrates the virtual SeeMore model into the real world, includes a photo gallery screen, and a ‘page’ feature to make sharing photos simple and easy. Users can select to annotate photos to demonstrate their safety knowledge of the images taken.

The app is available to download free on the App Store.