eSafety checklist for early learning services
This checklist is designed to help Service Managers and Directors of early learning services throughout Australia assess their online environments for the safety of their children, educators and families.
The National Principles for Child Safe Organisations recognise the importance of safe physical and online environments to promote the safety and wellbeing of all children. Early learning services have a responsibility to ensure children and educators are protected from harm when they engage with digital technologies. Managers and Directors should aim to be creating a safe online environment at their service.
Early learning services with a safe online environment:
- understand the risks associated with being online for children, families, educators and the service more broadly
- provide experiences for children that help them learn and remember key strategies for being safe online
- support staff through the development of policies and practices
- support and communicate with families about safe online practices at home and in the community.
eSafety has created the checklist for early learning services with these safe online environment aims in mind.
How to use the checklist
You can use the checklist to identify online risks and as a guide to improving the online safety practices of children and adults. The checklist is not intended to be exhaustive and there may be specific considerations in different contexts.
The checklist has been developed in consultation with the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) and is referenced to the National Quality Standard (NQS) and Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF). You can use it as evidence in Assessment and Rating. ACECQA advises a checklist such as this should be shared and discussed with educators to ensure it is understood by your whole team.
To support your team’s understanding, you may prefer to complete eSafety’s free Professional Learning Module: Creating a Safe Online Environment. The module explains each section of this checklist, features research from a variety of experts and links out to supporting documentation and examples. This checklist has been embedded in the module for ease of use.
Download checklist
Last updated: 01/02/2021