Australia has regularly, some would say determinedly, made itself the laughing stock of the online world for yeas. Policies have usually started around boneheaded and gone downhill from there, so its both a relief and an inspiration that the probable new party of government across the Tasman has looked to the future for its policy, no, the real future, really: Schoolboy whiz helps draft Labor cyber policy.
Tom Wood, the 16-year-old schoolboy who circumvented the Government's $84 million internet filter scheme, has been enlisted by Labor to draft a sizeable chunk of its cyber safety policy.
He is pretty specific about what is wrong
"Much of the actual current advice is irrelevant, jumbled, too complex, too vague, and it misses out on a lot," he said.
"That's the same with the hotline. The education and teacher training resources are just really out-of-date and don't cover it in it's full detail. The education isn't mandated and hardly taken up by any schools anyway."
Do tell, 16 eh? What would he know? Oh, right, he's been doing thsi all his life. So what's the plan?
specifically establishing a Youth Advisory Committee, Establishing a collaborative panel to co-ordinate all national initiatives, support for much more research projects, the overhauling [of] the NetAlert website and Hotline, the addition of an online Chatline, and most notably the compulsory training of teachers, leading to education for all year levels, in all schools in the nation, plus make it all dynamic so it can all be updated as it evolves.
Now good luck with all the others who have to buy into this thing, especially those in the bureaucracy (many employed by an increasingly politicside system and with allegiances to the right wing) and anyone in an authority position who is also over 40, but this is a breath of fresh air.
16 eh? Looks like the kids might come to the rescue sooner than we expected.
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