Online Safety Grants Program – Round 2 recipients

Project name

The Gist: A digital intervention to improve sexual health and wellbeing and reduce the negative impacts of pornography

Project description

The Burnet Institute developed ‘The Gist’, a digital education program designed to address the impact of pornography for young people and provide them with alternative information about sex and relationships. 

Young Australians report that sexual health education is lacking, and they rely on the internet and pornography to learn about sex, consent and relationships.

This project built on a trialled prototype to develop a scalable, multi-model intervention package that includes a website and workshops to facilitate reach and engagement.

For more information, head to thegist.org.au.

Audience
Marginalised young people experiencing fragmented schooling or family conflict, and from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, in metropolitan and regional Victoria. 

Funding
$658,051

Project name

In Real Life

Project description

Project Rockit developed ‘In Real Life’, a library of 36 youth-designed videos to help teachers initiate conversations, peer-to-peer learning and exploration of the online world. 

Designed to be delivered in classrooms to young people in Years 7 to 12, ‘In Real Life’ was developed through a process of co-design and co-creation with the target audience, and informed by research from Western Sydney University’s Young and Resilient Centre.
 
To date, ‘In Real Life’ has reached more than 50,000 young people via social media channels and was an honouree at the 2023 Webby awards. 

For more information, head to projectrockit.com.au/irl.

Audience
Secondary school aged students from diverse backgrounds in remote, rural and metropolitan regions nationally.

Funding
$614,377

Project name

Adapting Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship resources for impactful eSafety education in Australian early education and primary school settings

Project description

The Queensland University of Technology, in partnership with Evolve Education, trialled USA-based Common Sense Media’s Digital Citizenship Curriculum in Australian schools.

This involved working directly with teachers in 15 primary schools around Australia to provide professional learning and guidance on how to implement the Digital Citizenship curriculum, with the support of a professional learning community. Following the delivery of the curriculum, its effectiveness was evaluated using a teacher survey, teacher interviews, and student focus groups and quizzes. 
 
The project also created and trialled online safety curriculum materials for Australian pre-school settings.

For more information, head to Adapting Common Sense Media's Digital Citizenship resources.

Audience
Primary school aged children and their teachers, as well as early years centre staff and children aged 3 to 5 in remote, rural and metropolitan regions across New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria.

Funding
$544,400

Project name

Stay Propa Deadly Online

Project description

The Institute for Urban Indigenous Health delivered ‘Stay Propa Deadly Online’, an initiative co-designed with communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health organisations, and industry experts.

Online safety education modules were created with community consultation, and delivered to more than 600 students across 15 primary and secondary schools in Queensland, as part of the existing Deadly Choices Healthy Lifestyle education program.

The project also produced a series of videos and downloadable posters featuring high profile Deadly Choices sporting ambassadors, and five animated videos addressing issues identified during community consultations.  

For more information, head to Stay Propa Deadly Online.

Audience
First Nations children, young people and their parents and carers in remote, rural and metropolitan Queensland.

Funding
$536,359

Project name

Keeping Our Young People Safe Online, Our Way

Project description

The ‘Keeping Our Young People Safe Online, Our Way’ project delivered tailored workshops with elders, parents, carers, young people and service providers to address online safety and bullying issues that affect the health and wellbeing of young people in remote Aboriginal communities. 

The project engaged remote communities to identify the nature of online safety issues impacting young people, and co-designed solutions to support the knowledge sharing and behaviour change that each community needed. The approach recognised that those most affected by these issues are best placed to design responses to address them.

As part of this project, several key eSafety resources will also be translated into the languages of participating communities.

Audience
Young people who are 15 years and older, parents and influencers of young people under 15 years, and community Elders in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia.

Funding
$413,000

Project name

The REEL Change Project

Project description

REELise created a nationwide content creation hub to showcase the stories and online experiences of young people. 

The project involved a series of virtual filmmaking workshops to foster digital leadership and creativity in young people aged 10 to 18 years. The sessions were attended by more than 700 young people, and taught the fundamentals of creating impactful and story-driven films. 

Participants in the filmmaking workshops were then invited to create and submit their films to the REELise film festival, which was held in Sydney in November 2022.

For more information, head to 2022 REELise Film Festival National Finalists.

Audience
Young people aged 10 to 18 years in remote, rural and metropolitan regions nationally, including young people who identify as LGBTIQ+, come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, or who have a disability.

Funding
$372,480

Project name

Healthy Video Gaming – Supporting Autistic Young People

Project description

Amaze developed tailored videos and written resources for parents and carers to support their autistic children and young people to have a healthy relationship with online video gaming. These resources were created in consultation with the autistic community. 

As part of the project, the resources included a baseline survey of parents’ and carers’ knowledge of healthy online video gaming, six parent and carer webinars, written resources, and videos created in conjunction with autistic young people, parents of autistic young people and gaming professionals.

The resources are strength-based and adopt a neuro-affirming perspective.

For more information, head to amaze.org.au.

Audience
Primary and secondary school aged children living with autism, and their parents and carers nationally.

Funding
$252,234

Project name

Online Safety for Young People Living with a Disability

Project description

Interaction Disability Services partnered with YSafe, and consulted with target audiences to deliver ‘Online Safety for Young People Living with a Disability’. 

The program consists of five online training modules for young people with intellectual disability and three accompanying modules designed for parents, carers and educators of young people with disability.

The training modules cover a variety of topics including cyberbullying, online relationships and digital wellbeing. Additional downloadable resources include Easy Read guides and video resources, some of which are available with Auslan interpretation.

For more information, head to interactionservices.org/online-safety.

Audience
Children with disabilities an their parents and carers nationally. 

Funding
$222,500

Project name

Youth Cybersafety, Relationships and Sexuality 

Project description

Sexual Health Victoria developed and piloted ‘Youth Cybersafety, Relationships and Sexuality’ – a preventative whole-school educational program designed to bridge the gap between early adolescents’ understanding of online safety and its connection to healthy relationships and sexuality.

The program was developed for young people aged 10 to 14 years, their parents and carers, and school teachers, leaders and wellbeing teams. More than 1300 students in Melbourne and regional Victoria participated in the program, and more than 300 educators and school staff participated in professional learning sessions. 

The program content included webinars, online safety resources, in-school sessions and a seven-episode podcast series featuring a range of online safety experts. The program has now been added to Sexual Health Victoria’s suite of programs for students in Years 5 and 6.

For more information head to shvic.org.au and shvic.org.au/schools/podcasts.

Audience
Primary and secondary school aged students, parents and carers and teachers in rural and metropolitan Victoria.

Funding
$178,600

Project name

Drawing Attention to Online Grooming

Project description

The Daniel Morcombe Foundation created two choose-your-own-adventure style animations – ‘Challenges and Choices’ for lower primary aged children, and ‘That’s Suss: eSafety Challenge’ for upper primary aged children.

These educational and fun activities help children to recognise online grooming, critically analyse suspicious behaviour, know where to report online grooming, and access support.

They also produced a guide to assist parents, carers and educators using the animations, and to provide additional information about meaningful online safety resources and reporting pathways.

For more information head to ‘Challenges and Choices’ and ‘That’s Suss: eSafety Challenge’.

Audience
Children aged 6 to 12 years, and their parents, carers and educators nationally.

Funding
$149,767.13

Project name

Online Safety, co-designed by Youth Broadcasters 

Project description

The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia delivered ‘Online Safety, Co-designed by Youth Broadcasters’. 

The project used the diverse national network of young broadcasters in communities around Australia to promote a range of engaging, impactful and inclusive online safety education resources. Affiliated radio stations reach a national audience of more than six million Australians through trusted local voices and channels.

The project aimed to increase the positive and safe use of digital technologies by children and young people in at-risk communities throughout Australia, and maximise opportunities for all Australians to understand the online safety complaints and referral pathways they can access.

Content created included a series of 12 community service announcements to raise awareness of key online safety issues among young people, and to encourage them to take action or seek help if they are affected by these issues. Additional resources included a webinar to provide young broadcasters with a better understanding of online safety issues, and a six-episode podcast series targeted to young community radio audiences.

For more information, head to cbaa.org.au.

Audience
Children and young people from diverse backgrounds, and their parents and carers nationally.

Funding
$140,000

Project name

Leaders of the Future – Online Resilience Project 

Project description

Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health, in partnership with Gender Equity Victoria, developed ‘Leaders of the Future – Online Resilience Project’. 

This project involved creating a virtual hub containing a series of co-designed visual resources to help with building the resilience of young women and non-binary people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. It also offers tips and strategies to cope with, and call out, online abuse. 

The project aimed to build on the inspirational videos featured in eSafety’s ‘Women in the Spotlight Program’, by developing a hub of video resources for multicultural young women, featuring young multicultural role models. 

To date, the resources have reached more than 15,000 young people on social media.

For more information, head to mcwh.com.au/leaders-of-the-future-an-esafety-project.

Audience
Young women and non-binary people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in rural and metropolitan Victoria. 

Funding
$128,919

Project name

Emerging Online Safety Issues: Co-creating Social Media Education with Young People

Project description

University of Sydney partnered with Youth Action and Student Edge to deliver ‘Emerging Online Safety Issues: Co-creating Social Media Education with Young People’. The project engaged young people and their parents and carers in participatory research and co-design to develop evidence-based social media education resources, focusing on key and emerging issues for young people’s safety online.

Seven focus groups, three co-design workshops and a national survey were conducted with young people aged 12 to 17, and parents and carers of children in the same age bracket. This consultation stage also supported engagement with culturally and linguistically diverse and First Nations young people in metropolitan and rural New South Wales.

Six peer-to-peer videos and three fact sheets were co-designed with young people, and formed the
basis of the Youth Online Safety campaign. A report outlining key findings from the participatory research phase was also published in September 2023. 

For more information, head to youthonlinesafety.org.

Audience
Young people, parents, carers, and First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse communities in rural and metropolitan New South Wales.

Funding
$119,298

Project name

Proudly Safe SA

Project description

The Catalyst Foundation delivered the ‘Proudly Safe SA’ project, to address online safety concerns specific to LGBTIQ+ young people in South Australia. 

The project involved working with LGBTIQ+ young people and their advocates to co-design and deliver online tools that provide tailored information and support to the community. 

This initiative aimed to fill the gap in appropriate resources and services for LGBTIQ+ young people, currently lacking in metropolitan, rural and remote areas of South Australia.

The co-design methodology and wide consultation process ensured that materials addressed the unique needs and concerns of the community.

For more information head to proudlysafesa.com.au.

Audience
LGBTIQ+ young people in remote, rural and metropolitan South Australia.

Funding
$90,014

Project name

Safe is Savvy

Project description

The 'Safe is Savvy' project helped educate young people, who are carers in their family, about online risks and safe online behaviour. The project was designed around the particular needs of young carers.

The project delivered a podcast series, featuring 12 fortnightly episodes accompanied by interactive online modules. Little Dreamers found 98% of young carers who listened to the podcast reported a changed attitude to online safety. 

Little Dreamers also delivered a 24-week social media campaign and associated downloadable templates and resources, to educate and empower young carers to identify risky behaviours and help them engage in safe activities online. 

For more information, head to littledreamers.org.au and shows.acast.com/safe-is-savvy.

Audience
Young carers aged 13 to 18 from remote, rural and metropolitan regions nationally.

Funding
$80,000