A celebration of sorts was held at Warilla High School on Wednesday after becoming the first school to achieve eSmart cyber safety accreditation in the Illawarra.
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An initiative by The Alannah and Madeline Foundation, the program encourages behavioural change in schools against cyber bullying.
"Cyber bullying is just out of control," Warilla High School relieving deputy principal Michael Stanizzo said.
"You're never going to totally control it, it's there, but it's about teaching our kids how to use it safely. That's all we're trying to do in our community, educate them."
Holding an eSmart cyber safety expo at Warilla High School on Wednesday, Mr Stanizzo said the aim was to encourage open communication with students.
"I'd say 60-70 per cent of the issues I deal with around discipline at school are related to online," Mr Stanizzo said.
"The big struggle for us now is the earlier age it's happening at, that's why we're trying to get primary schools involved because we're finding that by year 7, even though the legal age to be on Facebook is 13, they've all got those accounts."
An organiser of Wednesday's eSmart expo, Olivia Tickle, said it was all about drawing educational resources together such as KidsHelpline and HeadSpace to open dialogue for students.
"Even if the kids chuck a magnet on their fridge, in times of need if it's there it could potentially really save someone's life."
"Basically what we're trying to do is give victims of bullying a voice from a student's perspective and really let them know they're not alone."
Fellow 16-year-old and expo organiser Bree Jarvis said as part of their eSmart accreditation, surveys were taken of the Warilla High School population which revealed alarming statistics. "Within this school, over half of the students have been cyber bullied or bullied in some way before," she said.
Reiterating the seriousness of cyber bullying, youth liaison officer at Lake Illawarra Police Scott Burgess believes a large number of students don't understand just how serious the problem is.
"They've got phones, they can do it in class, they do it at home," Mr Burgess said.
"It doesn't go away now, it's there 24/7. They can't get away from it.
"Everything has a digital trace now, we just need the starting point," he said.