ySafe | Cybersafety Education Isn’t Broken, But It’s Falling Behind

We partner with hundreds of schools each year.
We get the calls, the emails, the quiet DMs to our Instagram account from wellbeing leads, Heads of Year, and classroom teachers doing their absolute best to keep up.

“We just had a deepfake incident. We never saw it coming.”
“There’s a student in Year 7 with an AI ‘best friend’… and it’s starting to replace real connection.”
“A group of girls is being excluded from a private chat, and no one’s talking about it.”

These aren’t isolated cases. They’re happening more and more.
And increasingly, they’re left out of traditional cybersafety education.

You’re probably doing something already, right?
Is it the right thing, right now?

Most schools have some form of cybersafety education.

The eSafety Commissioner’s latest data and ongoing media headlines continue to remind us of the hard truths:

• A 450% increase in cyberbullying in just five years
• A 550% surge in explicit deepfake content, often created from school-published photos
• A generation of teens forming emotional dependencies on AI chatbots
• And a significant number of students unable to recognise coercive control in their own digital relationships.

The digital landscape has changed dramatically. And the risks students now face are faster, more personal, and more embedded in how they socialise and relate to each other.

You’re not expected to know every trend, every platform, every risk. That’s our job.

The illusion of coverage.

Cybersafety education might feel covered at your school, but ‘coverage’ isn’t necessarily culture.

A lesson in Health. A PDF policy. A reminder in the newsletter. It’s something. But, increasingly, it’s not enough.

When students face real digital threats, like a fake nude or manipulative AI chats, general awareness won’t guide them. That’s where the gap lives.

And when that gap exists:

• Staff feel overwhelmed and unsupported
• Parents lose confidence in the school’s care
• Students are left to figure things out alone.

So, what does modern cybersafety education look like?

• Having an expert onsite, working alongside your school to review current policies, frameworks, and response protocols, ensuring your school’s plan reflects what’s actually happening now
• Providing teachers with tailored training, so they understand the latest risks and can respond with clarity and confidence
• Engaging parents through practical, real-world sessions that help them have stronger conversations at home
• Empowering students through programs like our Digital Ambassador Program, which turns peer pressure into peer leadership and gives students a meaningful role in shaping a positive digital culture

At West More Anglican School, this meant identifying a group of Year 9 students who were already digitally influential and working with them to lead real conversations with peers about online exclusion, AI companions, and respectful relationships. The school's Deputy Principal shared:

Join the conversation.

Alongside student-led work, the school brought in a ySafe expert to help align digital safety policies across wellbeing, leadership, and IT making it easier for staff to work together and act early.

You don’t need to be the expert. You just need to know an expert you can trust.

This is what a modern approach looks like.
It’s proactive, collaborative, and real.

We're not anti-tech. We're pro guidance.

At ySafe, we don’t believe the answer is to restrict everything or fear the internet.
We believe in building critical thinkers, safe communities, and connected support systems around the students navigating these spaces every day.

When parents ask what you’re doing about online safety, you don’t have to scramble.
 You just say:
 “We brought in the people who live and breathe this every day.”

Today’s students won’t grow up offline.
So the goal isn’t to pull them out it’s to go with them, and teach them how to think, act, and care for others online.

Cybersafety education isn’t broken.
But it was built for a different generation and a different internet.
If we want to protect and prepare students, we need to go beyond awareness.
We need to evolve.