Students learn cyber safety

Albany Senior High School students got a lesson in cyber safety on Tuesday, with respected social media expert and Edith Cowan University researcher Dr Julian Dooley addressing Year 8s on the importance web safety.

Picture by Keir Tunbridge: Social media expert Dr Julian Dooley with ASHS Year 8 students Eve Maslen and Cory Draper

Dr Dooley spoke about the importance of privacy, risks of sharing personal information on the internet, as well as avoiding internet scams.

He said there was a recent rise in the prevalence of “clickjacking” style scams on social media sites such as Facebook.

“One of the more common variations is ‘somebody liked your picture’ or ‘click here to see your top 10 stalkers’,” he said.

Such links target users’ egos and are difficult to resist, but often contain viruses, Dr Dooley said. “The best advice is if you’re ever in doubt don’t click it.”

Dr Dooley is finalising a research project for ECU focused on cyber safety and cyber bullying, which ASHS students will take part in.

keir.tunbridge@albanyadvertiser.com