{"id":14780,"date":"2022-02-07T05:10:19","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T05:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=14780"},"modified":"2022-02-07T05:10:19","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T05:10:19","slug":"labor-safe-kids-are-esmart-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2022\/02\/07\/labor-safe-kids-are-esmart-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor: Safe Kids Are eSmart Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>An Albanese Labor Government will ensure all Australian schoolchildren can develop the digital and media literacy skills they need to stay safe and thrive in the online world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Labor is today announcing it will support the national rollout of the eSmart Digital Licence+ for primary and secondary school students, as well as the eSmart Media Literacy Lab for secondary school students, to be developed and delivered by the Alannah &amp; Madeline Foundation.&nbsp;<br><br>The&nbsp;eSmart&nbsp;Digital Licence+&nbsp;equips children with the digital literacy required to harness the opportunities and deal with the challenges of the internet. The&nbsp;eSmart&nbsp;Media Literacy Labempowers young people to think critically, create responsibly, and&nbsp;be active citizens online.<br><br>Improving digital media literacy are keyrecommendations of the ACCC\u2019s Digital Platforms Inquiry report, but delivery of these programs is currently limited to schools who can afford it or have philanthropic support.&nbsp;<br><br>It\u2019s another example of&nbsp;the Morrison Government&nbsp;doing&nbsp;too little,&nbsp;too late.&nbsp;Australian children deserve a government that is on their side&nbsp;and prioritises their safety online.&nbsp;<br><br>That\u2019s why&nbsp;Labor\u2019s&nbsp;plan will&nbsp;expand this to all schools,&nbsp;ensuring&nbsp;all Australian children have&nbsp;access to&nbsp;critical knowledge and skills&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;digital economy.<br><br>The Shadow Minister for Education, Tanya Plibersek said \u201cfor years our kids have been getting a pen licence as they learn to write &#8211; this is the pen licence for the digital age.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLabor&nbsp;wants to&nbsp;ensure&nbsp;these resources are&nbsp;available to all children, regardless&nbsp;of what school they go to. It\u2019s crucial all&nbsp;our&nbsp;kids&nbsp;learn the&nbsp;skills&nbsp;they need to keep&nbsp;them safe online,\u201d&nbsp;Ms&nbsp;Plibersek&nbsp;said.<br><br>The&nbsp;Shadow Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland said the internet was&nbsp;providing new opportunities but also&nbsp;posing&nbsp;challenges when it comes&nbsp;to&nbsp;online safety.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhether it\u2019s&nbsp;to&nbsp;confront&nbsp;cyberbullying or&nbsp;disinformation, we need to&nbsp;provide&nbsp;our children&nbsp;with the&nbsp;best&nbsp;tools available.&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;kids&nbsp;deserve no less.\u201d<br><br>The&nbsp;Assistant Shadow Minister for Communications and Cyber Security,&nbsp;Tim Watts said&nbsp;\u201cany parent can tell you that during the pandemic we\u2019ve seen more kids spending more time on screens. Unfortunately, the experts tell us we\u2019ve also seen more kids exposed to the ugly side of being online.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe need to act now to ensure every Australian child has the skills and knowledge they need to stay safe online,\u201d Mr Watts said.<br><br>Alannah&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;Madeline Foundation CEO, Sarah&nbsp;Davies&nbsp;AM, said \u201cit is critical that legislative and industry changes are coupled with initiatives that build digital intelligence and media literacy skills in children and young people, as well as in schools, early childhood settings, families, and support services. We want every Australian school student to have access to our comprehensive suite of Australian curriculum-aligned, and evidence-informed eLearning programs so they are empowered with the skills to effectively and safely use technology today, and in the future.\u201d<br><br>The&nbsp;eSmart&nbsp;Digital Licence&nbsp;and Media Literacy Lab are among&nbsp;the most comprehensive&nbsp;digital and media literacy&nbsp;resources available&nbsp;in Australia,&nbsp;developed&nbsp;with the DQ Institute in Singapore to internationally recognised&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/alp.us12.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=942ebc4c1cf8fc522a4f4c50e&amp;id=1256c767aa&amp;e=a709c12679\">global standards<\/a>.&nbsp;<br><br>Improving digital&nbsp;skills&nbsp;and enhancing&nbsp;eSafety&nbsp;is a whole of society effort&nbsp;and&nbsp;Labor&nbsp;is pleased to support the Alannah &amp; Madeline Foundation in leveraging&nbsp;its&nbsp;good work in our community.<br><br>This commitment will cost $6 million over three years which is a small but powerful investment in digital skills to support our children\u2019s safety online, their participation as digital citizens and the development of Australia\u2019s future workforce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Albanese Labor Government will ensure all Australian schoolchildren can develop the digital and media literacy skills they need to stay safe and thrive in the online world. Labor is today announcing it will support the national rollout of the eSmart Digital Licence+ for primary and secondary school students, as well as the eSmart Media &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2022\/02\/07\/labor-safe-kids-are-esmart-kids\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Labor: Safe Kids Are eSmart Kids&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14781,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14780\/revisions\/14781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}