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Online Safety for Children and Young People at Hillsong Church

Safer Internet Day 2026 Safer Internet Day 2026 Resources for Parents and Carers

Information for Parents and Carers

Hillsong programs for children and young people seek to provide positive and safe physical and online environments for all participants.

It’s important to be aware of ways you can help your child to have safe and positive experiences online. Parents and carers should also understand the potential for negative online experiences including:

  • Exposure to inappropriate content
  • Peer to peer harms (e.g. bullying, online abuse)
  • Unwanted contact
  • Potential for inappropriate relationships with adults, even those in a position of trust.

Online Communication and Personal Interaction

Hillsong Safe Church recommends transparent communication between leaders and young people, ensuring that communication is within appropriate boundaries.

  • Leaders should not personally communicate electronically with children (primary school aged or younger). All communication with children of this age should take place via the parent or carer. Leaders should not ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ children on any form of social media.
  • Communication with high-school aged students should maintain transparency and accountability by communicating in a group where all individuals can see the messages. This may be achieved by group messaging apps, group emails, group texts or facebook groups.
  • Communication directly with high-school aged students should be transparent and only take place with parent/carer permission. Leaders should not arrange personal contact, including online contact, with Young People for a purpose unrelated to Hillsong Church activities.

Tips for Parents and Carers

  • Find out who your child or young person’s leaders are.
  • If you’re concerned about who is contacting your young person or what type of communication they’re receiving please contact safe church.
  • Photos of children and young people should only be shared with parent/carer permission and on official church social media and websites. Photos and/or captions should not include the child or young person’s personal details such as full name, address, phone number, social media profile names, or the name of the school they attend. Sharing this information may pose a risk to their personal safety.

Contact Safe Church: [email protected] or 1800 557 264

Staying Safe Online

Helping your child or young person to be safe online — here are some resources and tips on helping your child or young person to be safe online, use the discussion points below to ‘start the chat’ about online safety. For more resources visit esafety.gov.au

Be Safe

  • Talk with your child about the positive experiences they can have online connecting with friends.
  • Remind them that not everyone online is nice and people can also pretend to be someone else.
  • Teach your child that personal information is like the key to your house. When you’re online, information like your full name, date of birth, phone number and where you live is information you need to be careful with.
  • Enable security and privacy settings on your child’s device and encourage them that privacy and security settings on devices and apps help to keep personal information, and them, safe.
  • Tell your child that messages that make them feel uncomfortable, unsafe, scared or a bit weird are not right for them and they should let you know.

Be Kind

  • Encourage your child to be kind to others and explain that being mean online is not ok.
  • Help your child to understand that not everyone online is kind and if someone is being mean or makes them feel uncomfortable they should let you know.

Ask for Help

  • Remind your child that it’s good to stay in an open area or nearby to you when they’re online so they can easily ask you for help if they need to.
  • Tell your child that if they see something online that makes them feel uncomfortable or if someone sends them an image or video that makes them feel yuck they should let you know.

Make good choices

  • Encourage your child to make good choices when online.
  • Tell them that not everything is always as it seems. Some things online can trick us. It could be a fake news story, information that is not true or a fake website. Or someone could pretend to be another person online.

Help your children safely navigate their digital world and educate them to avoid harmful online experiences. Explore websites, games, apps and social media together and set some rules. Your support and guidance can give your children the confidence to make sound decisions online and ask for help when they need it. esafety.gov.au

More Tips for Parents and Carers

  • Be aware of your child or young person’s safety online. It can be helpful to reach a family agreement about rules on using the internet at home and encourage an open dialogue about online activity.
  • Check device privacy settings and be mindful of geo-tagging and metadata. Consider installing software to block access to certain sites.
  • Where possible, limit the use of devices in bedrooms.
  • Be careful who you share sensitive information with online, such as address, date of birth or the school your children attend.
  • Check out the resources for parents and carers at esafety.gov.au/parents
  • Encourage young people to learn about online safety at esafety.gov.au/young-people
  • Help children to learn about online safety at Kids esafety.gov.au/kids

To learn about the latest games, apps and social media, including how to protect your information and report inappropriate content, see the eSafety Commission’s eSafety Guide esafety.gov.au/key-issues/esafety-guide