Young Children Online
About this resource
This book provides information and practical advice about how children and their adults can navigate the internet and stay safe online.
Age range for this resource
For educators (including early childhood tertiary students), parents, and carers of children aged 18 months to 5 years.
Goal of this resource
To foster young children’s sense of wellbeing and online safety.
To build young children’s understanding of the internet.
To support young children to identify and act on online safety risks, such as encountering distressing online content and/or unsafe interactions with strangers in online games.
How might educators use this resource?
Share this book with colleagues. Use it as a conversation starter to reflect on how young children participate in online activities, and the risks this may pose to young children in your care. For example: What do you observe happening in children’s play that provides clues to how young children might participate online at home with their families and in the community? What actions do you take in your work with children and families to support children’s participation in online environments? How can educators support children and families in understanding the main risks children face online? How does your service support young children’s online safety when using digital documentation?
How might families use this resource?
Read this book and think about the types of risks your child might face in online environments. Draw on the advice in this book to teach your child to safely navigate the internet and stay safe in online environments.
How might organisations use this resource?
Provide a link to this book in your newsletter or regular communications with families. Highlight how learning about online safety is a requirement of Belonging, Being, and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia V2.0 (Australian Government Department of Education, 2022) and explain that this book provides information and practical ways to support children’s learning about online safety in play-based contexts.
What learning might we see?
Educators, parents, and carers becoming aware of what being online means and understanding how young children use the internet and the type of risks they face online.
Educators, parents, and carers developing knowledge about how to keep young children safe online and strategies for building young children’s understanding of the internet.
Young children developing an understanding of the internet as a network of connected devices people use to share information and communicate with each other.
Young children becoming familiar with online safety behaviours and strategies.
Practices
Modelling
Children and adults participate in online activities together so that adults can model safe internet behaviours.
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 Online Safety for Under 5s booklet
Developed by the eSafety Commissioner, this free booklet offers practical advice and strategies for parents and carers to help tackle the key online safety issues for young children.
Created by the Daniel Morcombe Foundation in memory of Daniel Morcombe, these resources are specifically designed to help educators, parents, and carers help keep children and young people safe.
For more ideas, explore these related resources:
Storytelling for a connected childhood
This article invites parents, carers, and educators to use stories to engage children and build their understanding about online safety.
Swoosh, Glide, and Rule Number 5
This picture book helps educators, parents, and carers to discuss online safety behaviours with children.
If you would like to read some research, explore these related resources:
Edwards, S. (2021). Cyber-safety and COVID-19 in the early years: A research agenda. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 19(3), 396–410. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X211014908
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 Papers. https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/media/5621/file/UNICEF-Investigating-Risks-Opportunities-Children-Digital-World-2021.pdf