Rebekah Nijsen from Lighthouse Cyber Education sat down with Doug from Mornings to talk about Children’s Online Safety.
Rebekah is a mum of two and has a background in the Police force. This drove the idea to start her own business, partnering with schools and communities to prevent online harms.
“During my time as a police officer in child protection, I saw firsthand, the trauma, both mentally, physically and emotionally that online harm can cause our kids.
Online Offenders
Law enforcement officers have a lot of powers and responsibility. Rebekah explained what that meant for her role.
“The online space is cross-jurisdictional. You might have someone in Perth, but the perpetrator or offender might is in the eastern states or in an entirely different country.”
She detailed that when they reached out to the apps causing harm to these children, because the victims consented to being over 13 years of age, the apps were not legally obligated to accept fault.
Criminal Offenses
Rebekah shared that she joined the police to be a voice for the vulnerable and felt helpless in certain situations where they couldn’t pursue a criminal offense.
“I struggled because schools and parents would turn around and go, but what do I do with this mess now? And I was like, I’m really sorry, but we have to move on to the next case.”
This empowered her to start an initiative that partnered with parents and schools to be part of prevention and education around these issues.
New Online Bans
From December 2025, a social media ban came into effect for children under the age of 16. Rebekah emphasised the importance of the intention behind this restriction and how it should be seen as a delay, instead of a total ban.
“The eSafety Commissioner has said, let’s not call it a ban, let’s call it a delay. Because we firmly believe that we’re not taking it away from kids. We are hopefully building their digital literacy so that when they mature a little bit more, they can be safer once they do have access to it. So I think words are really important.”
Is It Working?
“I think if we look at it from the perspective of is every child under 16 in Australia, have they been taken off social media? Then the answer is no, they haven’t. We know some have, and that’s fantastic. But the reality is a lot of kids still do have access to their accounts.”
Rebekah said that if we were to look at it from a cultural point of view, we would understand it will not be an overnight change.
“Any law, anything, whether it’s criminal law, civil law, nothing changes immediately. But I think we’re starting to see some signs that culturally things are slowly changing.”
She said it is beginning to have global impact.
“We’re starting to see other countries embrace it as well. And what we’re seeing now is big tech understand one thing, and that’s money. And that’s why they’ve hidden from the perspective of it’s a civil law. If you breach it, you will be penalised.”
Online Gaming
“As more countries embrace this culture shift, then we will start seeing changes. With platforms like Roblox, it wasn’t included in the ban. Well, from a simple legal perspective, It’s a game.
Roblox
Rebekah explained the individual aspect of Roblox and how it pertains to the ban.
“Roblox is a bit unique in the sense that it’s an online platform where users can go to play games. So Roblox in itself is not a game. It’s an online platform where you can play multiple different games. A couple of the popular ones is Grow Your Garden, 99 Nights in a Forest, Steal A Brain Rot. And users can either play these games or called experiences, or they can create their own games and then host them on the Roblox servers.”
She went on to explain that it is a co-mingled site, which means that both adults and kids are on the game.
“It’s important for parents to know that there are some games on Roblox that are 18 plus, which are not suitable for kids. So, Roblox is all based on age ratings, so every game or experience, every clothing that the avatar wears, which is called a skin.”
“Every weapon, every sort of game or world they go to is all age-based, and depending on what age that user is graded at, which is done through parental controls.”
She warned that although parents can control what their children start playing, there could be backdoors within that game that lead to another more adult game.
“The game that your child might be playing might be suitable, but there might be a hidden backdoor that’s unknown that then leads to another game that is 18 plus.”
Something that will soon come into effect is age estimation, which means that every user who wants to use chat in the game must agree to either a picture or video being taken, to verify that they are of legal age.
How to Prevent Underage Use
Rebekah said that the first three steps to take in order to better prevent unsafe device use would be as follows:
- Do not allow devices be used in bedrooms.
“Kids are going to do risky things when their parents aren’t around.”
2. Stay informed through cyber safety talks through school.
3. Go to Lighthouse Cyber Education’s website for resources
Check out the full chat below.