Year 11 Police Liaison Officer Incursion

Year 11 Incursion with Constable Ally Watts
Technology has always found ways to make our lives more convenient from having food delivered on UberEat or DoorDash, to learning and education on Google Classroom or to making friends by your platform of choice (Video Games, SnapChat, TikTok etc.).

As such it has made its way into our lives more and more without our realisation, sometimes even in places we didn’t even consider. So much in the same way road rules for motorists and pedestrians were enacted when our highway and road networks were built for cars, so too will the same rules and guidelines be made for how we conduct ourselves in CyberSpace. Until such a time we ought to look out for our own safety and privacy online as we would if we were out and about in public. Here are the few key takeaways I hope we all received from the short assembly we as Year 11 had with Constable Ally Watts:

“How much of yourself do you put out there?” 
Does SnapChat really need to know your home address?
Does Facebook really need to know your date of birth?
Does UberEats really need to have your location permission at ALL times?
Does InstaGram really need to have your phone number?

Be very mindful of what a website ‘requires’ of you to sign up as opposed to what they ‘ask’ of you. There are countless occasions where you might be signing up to a new service and what it requests of you is not actually necessary. We should be aware of what is a ‘requirement’ of the service verses what is merely asked by them.

A.W.A.R.E
Appropriate? Who can see it? Accurate? Respectful? Environment?

Constable Watts’ message right before you post or share something online is to be AWARE.

Bringing it back to reality, one can understand each of these points if you would liken ‘sharing content online’ to ‘shouting it out loud in public’, or at the very least saying it to another person.

When you are about to share online, would it be appropriate if said in public? Even if it were only between two people, be it in public or online, always consider that there may always be people within hearing-distance to your conversations or that what you will be sharing can always be saved and passed on.

Continuing the comparison, who can see it? If it were an image that you intend for your friends to see, consider whether you would be okay if it somehow spread beyond those you intended. This doesn’t even have to be an issue of untrustworthy friends, but more to do with knowing what is exactly on the “Terms and Services Agreement” that we all scroll through and accept…without reading. Turns out, Instagram (and by extension their parent company Facebook) own any images that you post onto their platforms! They can very well sell any images on their platform to whatever advertisement company requests it of them, so don’t be too shocked if you are unlucky enough to find yourself on a billboard in another country!

Is what you are about to share accurate and respectful? The age of information overload is upon us, and the problems faced now is not knowing who or what exactly to believe. We shouldn’t then add to this problem by fuelling rumours and gossip of others, which in turn will mean to be respectful. If you wouldn’t say it in front of the person, then you shouldn’t be sharing it online.

Lastly, even if you have been careful in not revealing your personal information, be mindful to what traces of information that can be found in your content. It can be as simple as your school crest seen on a blazer or in the corner of the image, or a nearby landmark (shopping centre, service station, hospital, street name) somewhere in your image. These small traces scattered on the many platforms you might be a part of may be enough for others to construct enough of a profile of yourself and figure out who you are. 

This isn’t to scare you or stop us from ever using the internet or whatever platforms you choose to be on. It does mean though, that we ought to take more care and be AWARE of our online behaviours, especially as we all continue to let it become a larger and larger part of our lives.