Twelve-year-old Claudia Calvert, from Darlington, has been chosen to take part in a Youth Advisory Group forum in Canberra into cyber bullying and other online issues
CYBER bullying and online privacy are big issues, and who better to look at them than the generation for whom the internet has always existed.
Among that generation is Claudia Calvert, a year 7 student at Mortlake College who will join about 60 like-minded youngsters at the Canberra Youth Advisory Group’s cyber safety summit on June 12.
The 12-year-old was selected from about 3000 people aged eight to 17 and said she was passionate about hearing and sharing opinions on online issues her age group faces, particularly cyber bullying.
“It’s an issue we need to think about because it’s happening all the time,” she said. “We discuss it a lot at school. No one really close to me (has been cyber bullied) but I’ve heard of people who have been. There can be terrible stories about people who have committed suicide because of bullying over the internet.
“I’m hoping to bring back information to my school to help students at our school know more about it and stay safer online.”
Claudia said her peers were increasingly engaged in social media but their awareness of how to maintain their privacy was not keeping up.
“Some of my friends are really public online.
“Hopefully I’ll be bringing information back about this showing why you’ve got to be careful online. Because of my age, the internet has always been a part of my life. I do enjoy doing this sort of stuff and helping other people and learning new things about the internet and social networking.”