eSafety Early Years Program for Educators
About this resource
These articles and videos provide information, activities, and advice to families and early childhood educators about young children using technology and online safety.
Age range for this resource
For educators, parents, and carers of children aged 12 months to 5 years.
Goal of this resource
To foster young children’s sense of wellbeing and online safety.
To provide young children with strategies, habits, and behaviours for maintaining their own safety when using online environments.
How might educators use this resource?
Explore the four Online safety teaching posters and accompanying notes for educators. You can use these with children to support discussions and learning experiences about online safety. Co-create an Online Safety Agreement with children at your service. Download or listen to the Swoosh, Glide, and Rule Number 5 picture book and song. Co-view the special eSafety Play School episode, Kiya’s Excellent eBirthday, with children at your service. Utilise the set of Play-based learning activities to help children at your service learn and practise online safety skills
How might families use this resource?
Use the Family tech agreement for under 5s to write a set of rules with your child and display them in the home in a place where everyone will see them. Download the Online safety for under 5s booklet for practical advice and strategies to help with key online safety issues for young children. Read or listen to the Swoosh, Glide, and Rule Number 5 picture book and song. Co-view the special eSafety Play School episode, Kiya’s Excellent eBirthday, with your child.
How might organisations use this resource?
Add this program to your next staff meeting agenda. Highlight how this program has free resources for educators and families of children under 5 to support positive relationships with technology and develop understanding of online safety. Display the website on a smartboard or device in your service entry or foyer so that parents and carers can view and interact with the free materials provided. Use the eSafety Checklist for early learning services to help create a safe online environment at your service. Schedule time for educators to work through the eSafety Early Years Professional Learning Modules as part of their professional development requirements. These self-paced and interactive modules support early childhood educators with providing safe and enjoyable online experiences for young children.
What learning might we see?
Educators, parents, and carers understanding young children’s interactions with technologies and approaches to supporting online safety.
Young children developing an awareness of online safety strategies and behaviours.
Practices
Supervising
Children use internet-connected technologies with filters and passwords applied and always with active adult supervision.
Area
Citizenship
Citizenship in digital contexts recognises that young children are active participants in their communities now and into the future. As citizens, young children respect their own rights and those of other people, and develop an appreciation for cultural, racial, gender, and religious diversity. Digital rights, digital privacy, online safety, and cyber-safety education provide a foundation for early citizenship in digital contexts.
Connection to relevant standards
Belonging, Being, and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia V2.0 (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022)
Outcome 1: Children have a strong sense of identity
Children feel safe, secure, and supported (e.g., Children establish and maintain respectful, trusting relationships with other children and educators).
Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter-dependence, resilience, and agency (e.g., Educators provide children with strategies to make informed choices about their actions, interactions, and behaviours).
Children develop knowledgeable, confident self-identities and a positive sense of self-worth (e.g., Educators support children to identify and assess risks in play and learning and to cope with the unexpected).
Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy, and respect (e.g., Children recognise safe and unsafe situations; Children identify trusted adults and friends; Educators support children to learn about and recognise safe and unsafe situations).
Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world
Children develop a sense of connectedness to groups and communities and an understanding of their reciprocal rights and responsibilities as active and informed citizens (e.g., Educators provide opportunities for children to investigate ideas, complex concepts, and ethical issues that are relevant to their lives and their local communities).
Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
Children become strong in their social, emotional, and mental wellbeing (e.g., Educators discuss and model appropriate use of digital technologies and discuss how to keep children safe online with children and families; Educators update their own learning of digital and cyber safety for children).
Children are aware of and develop strategies to support their own mental and physical health and personal safety (e.g., Educators learn about e-safety for children and embed and model safe digital practices).
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners
Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies, and natural and processed materials (e.g., Educators select and introduce appropriate tools, technologies, and media and provide the skills, knowledge, and techniques to enhance children’s learning; Educators develop their skills and knowledge with digital technologies and media in their curriculum to use them confidently with children).
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators
Children engage with a range of texts and gain meaning from these texts (e.g., Children view and listen to printed, visual, and multimedia texts and respond with relevant gestures, actions, comments, and/or questions).
Children express ideas and make meaning using a range of media (e.g., Children view, listen and respond to simple printed, visual, and multimedia texts or music and express how it makes them feel).
Children use digital technologies and media to access information, investigate ideas, and represent their thinking (e.g., Educators teach children critical reflection skills and encourage them to evaluate the quality and trustworthiness of information sources; Educators have opportunities to develop their own knowledge and understanding of appropriate digital technology use and safety with children and families).
National Quality Standard (Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, 2019)
Quality Area 1: Educational program and practice (e.g., Educators are deliberate, purposeful, and thoughtful in their decisions and actions; Each child’s agency is promoted, enabling them to make choices and decisions that influence events and their world).
Quality Area 2: Children’s health and safety (e.g., Each child’s wellbeing and comfort is provided for, including appropriate opportunities to meet each child’s need for sleep, rest, and relaxation; At all times, reasonable precautions and adequate supervision ensure children are protected from harm and hazard).
Quality Area 5: Relationships with children (e.g., Responsive and meaningful interactions build trusting relationships which engage and support each child to feel secure, confident, and included; The dignity and rights of every child are maintained).
Quality Area 6: Collaborative partnerships with families and communities (e.g., Current information is available to families about the service and relevant community services and resources to support parenting and family wellbeing).
National Principles for Child Safe Organisations (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018)
Principle 1: Child safety and wellbeing is embedded in organisational leadership, governance, and culture.
Principle 2: Children and young people are informed about their rights, participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.
Principle 3: Families and communities are informed and involved in promoting child safety and wellbeing.
Principle 5: People working with children and young people are suitable and supported to reflect child safety and wellbeing values in practice.
Principle 7: Staff and volunteers are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and awareness to keep children and young people safe through ongoing education and training.
Principle 8: Physical and online environments promote safety and wellbeing while minimising the opportunity for children and young people to be harmed.
Explore More
If these ideas are new to you, explore these related resources:
eSafety Early Years Professional Learning Modules
These self-paced and interactive modules support early childhood professionals (e.g., educators, service managers and directors) with providing safe and enjoyable online experiences for young children.
eSafety Early Years Parent Resources
These articles, activities, and videos explore how parents and carers can support young children to have safe and enjoyable experiences online.
For more ideas, explore these related resources:
Developing a culture of consent
This video presentation explores how early childhood educators can embed a culture of consent in their services by requesting permission from children and adults before taking and using digital images of children.
This picture book supports parents, carers, and educators to discuss issues with children around online safety.
If you would like to read some research, explore these related resources:
Siskind, D., Conlin, D., Hestenes, L., Kim, S. A., Barnes, A., & Yaya-Bryson, D. (2022). Balancing technology and outdoor learning: Implications for early childhood teacher educators. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 43(3), 389–405. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10901027.2020.1859024
Stoilova, M., Livingstone, S., & Khazbak, R. (2021). Investigating risks and opportunities for children in a digital world: A rapid review of the evidence on children’s internet use and outcomes. Innocenti Discussion Paper 2020-03. UNICEF Office of Research. https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/1183-investigating-risks-and-opportunities-for-children-in-a-digital-world.html