For professionals

The Health Promotion and Education Research Program, led by Head Professor Donna Cross, combines over 14+ years of cyber safety research, involving over 30 projects investigating young people’s online behaviours, totalling over $5 million in funding since 2007.

This pipeline of research includes world-first interventions to address online benefits and challenges for children, young people, parents and members of the school community.

Professor Donna Cross and the Health Promotion and Education Research Program at Telethon Kids Institute has a long-standing collaboration with the eSafety Commissioner, who supports the team’s cyber bullying and social and emotional wellbeing research, including working collaboratively on the Beacon app to share cyber safety information and support to families in a trusted one-stop-shop app.

The rising popularity of technology use, even among very young children, creates both opportunities and challenges. 

Beacon aims to bring awareness to challenges that young people face being online, but also balanced with opportunties that can support positive social and emotional wellbeing.

Access to digital technology can have enormous educational and social benefits. However, their use by children is not without risk

Children’s exposure to these factors places them at risk of adverse physical, social and mental health outcomes.

While young people’s knowledge of digital technologies is advanced, this is often not in line with their social and emotional development and cognitive capacities needed to assess risks and make complex decisions.

Beacon extends the work you do, by putting a trusted cyber safety education tool into the hands of parents and caregivers ready to help at times when they need it the most.

We need your help!

This page is a collection of resources for individuals and organisations who work with families, young people and children to educate and support development of healthy and protective online behaviours.
Just as our Beacon app is bursting with credible information to support families, this page For Professionals is bursting with ready to go communication pieces to assist in making it easy for you to talk about Beacon in the work you do. From social media posts, to newsletter inserts, our toolkit is ready to help achieve our shared vision of keeping Australian kids safe online and to help parents feel empowered in a digital world.

In a rapidly changing world, parents and caregivers need a guide

The online world can change at a rapid pace. Competing messages and multiple concerns can contribute to parents and care givers becoming overwhelmed in a sea of information as they navigate supporting their child’s online behaviour and emerging digital behaviours. Just as parents and care givers play an important role in keeping children and young people safe online, you as an individual and organisation are an essential trusted messenger for informing parents and care givers about cyber safety.
When seeking answers, parents and caregivers value your knowledge, credibility and the relationship you have established with them to shine a light and guide them in a positive direction. It is the relationship and trust that parents and carers have with community organisations, health, education and care services like yours, that parents look to for certainty.