Online safety

• Check out the eSafety Commissioner’s education Toolkit for Universities, resources specifically created to help university students stay safe online.
• Online safety advice for women - This resource provides women in universities with information about online abuse, including how to respond and where to find support
• Check your account and settings to ensure you are not sharing anything you wish to keep private.
• Protect your devices, particularly Android devices against viruses, malware and spyware. There are apps you can download to reduce the risks. Have a look at these tips for internet and device safety.
• Think about which apps really need to be able to access your location information and turn off location services for all others. If privacy or safety is a concern, do not opt into sharing your location through apps that allow location sharing with friends.
• Turn off your apps and browsers and cover your webcam when not in use.
• Learn how to avoid online scams and identity theft.

We are seeing an increase in people experiencing technology abuse such as; cyberbullying, image-based abuse and ‘sextortion’. With people spending more time online everyone is more susceptible to being targeted by scammers and online abusers, so it’s important to know what to look out for.

Technology-facilitated abuse can range from online bullying to stalking and involve a range of behaviours including:

• abusive online messages, calls or texts
• image-based abuse, where someone shares or threatens to share an intimate image of you without your consent
• account takeovers, where someone accesses your online account and locks you out of them
• fake social media accounts, when fake social media accounts are being used to harass you or post negative online comments about you.
• being tracked through a phone or device. When tracking techniques or spyware are used to track where you are. This is sometimes used by a partner or ex-partner or family member in a family violence situation. So is important to recognise the warning signs.

Please watch this video by the Australian Government e-safety Commissioner on image-based abuse.

Watch video

Sextortion is a form of blackmail. This is where someone threatens to share intimate images of you online unless you give in to their demands usually for money. Blackmailers often target people through:

• dating apps
• social media
• webcams
• adult pornography sites.

The number one piece of advice in response to this is that you should never pay the scammers. There are also a number other Common Scams [PDF216] that you can familiarise yourself with. The more you know about what’s out there, the better equipped you will be to spot it if someone is trying to scam you.

Case study: Recently moved to Australia for university, Min-jun agrees to a video call with a woman that quickly turns sexual and then abruptly ends. Find out how the e-safety commission helps Min-jun when he finds he’s being blackmailed.

Case study

This is the use of technology to hurt or intimidate someone. 1 in 5 young Australians report being bullied, excluded or threatened online. Cyberbullying includes behaviours such as:

• Mean comments or rumours spread on social media sites, through email or through a text message:
  • using a victim’s password to break into their account to impersonate the victim or post embarrassing messages about them
  • posting an embarrassing video about someone
  • threatening someone through a live streaming system.

Check out the eSafety Commission’s Guide for students responding to adult cyber abuse.

If you or someone you know is being affected by cyberbullying you can get in contract with our Safer Community Service.

If you notice a friend or person being bullied online here are some things you can do:

• Direct Message (DM) your friend: Message your friend directly to make sure they’re OK. Remind them that you are available to support them if they need it.
• Call it out: If you feel safe and confident, stand up to the person doing the bullying and make it clear that what they are doing is not right. This can be as subtle as a ‘thumbs down emoji’ or even a comment like ‘not cool’.
• Get extra help: If your friend seems really impacted by the cyberbullying then speak to them about the supports offered by La Trobe such as the Student Counselling Service and Safer Community.
• Help your friend to report cyberbullying: You can do this by contacting our Safer Community Service or by completing an online reporting tool provided by eSafety.
• Check out more eSafety resources on How to be an upstander.

Please watch this video by Gender Equity Victoria which shows how we can all contribute to being a positive bystander online.

Watch video

Everyone has the right to their privacy; refrain from adding your classmates on other forms of social media until you have had a conversation with them and they consent.

Cyberbullying and technology-facilitated abuse are against the University policy. Cyberbullying can occur in many ways:

• abusive texts and emails
• messages, images or videos including image-based abuse (sometimes incorrectly referred to as ‘revenge porn’), where a person distributes or posts false, humiliating or intimate/sexualised videos or photos of a person without their consent
• imitating others online by using an alias
• humiliating, harassing or threatening people and/or their family or friends online
• hacking and misusing another person’s email accounts
• nasty online gossip and chat
• spread misinformation about a person
• encourages violence and harassment towards an individual or people with specific attributes
• Learn more about the laws regarding online safety in Australia and The Online Safety Act 2021 .