Dolly’s Dream has partnered with the Telethon Kids Institute to get Beacon, the free cyber safety app, into the hands of parents and carers across the nation.
Co-designed with input from parents, carers and cyber safety experts including the Office of the eSafety Commissioner, Beacon provides families with trustworthy, practical resources to help them confidently navigate their children’s technology use and reduce associated harms.
Families receive content tailored to their needs – including articles, videos and alerts – from a comprehensive library of strategies and tips to help address challenging issues such as screen time, gaming and cyberbullying. The content is regularly updated in response to changing Australian societal and online trends.
Beacon focuses on the following topics and issues, outlined in the Beacon Digital Citizenship Framework.
Testimonials from Parents
“My son Lucas was playing Xbox online with his friends whilst my wife and I were busy making dinner and planning a few things… hence a bit preoccupied. Lucas then quickly drops into conversation and says: ‘Hey Dad, can I download this app called Discord to chat with my online friends?’ Normally it would be the sort of conversation where I would ask him a couple of quick questions about what it does, how it works etc then make a relatively uninformed decision on the spot because I was busy. In this instance, however, I typed the name of the app into Beacon, read a quick summary and then asked him some questions in relation to it. The advice it provided was spot on in terms of things to look out for and a basic recommendation of how suitable it was. I felt assured that I had made the right decision.”
“Super high quality and accurate [content]. Very trustworthy. And I guess once you read the first 10 or so articles, you realise you don’t have to critique it too much because you know that someone else has done a really good job of doing this and you can just trust it.”
“Because it is so quick and easy to retrieve information, and it’s not overwhelming, and you know it’s trusted content from a scientific basis, I think parents could ensure their kid’s online safety much more effectively.”
“I don’t think there is an easier way to become more informed very quickly and make good evidence-based decisions on this area of life with kids.”
For more information about Beacon
