Life Education and McAfee Fill the Cyber Education Gap For Young Australians

Life Education and McAfee Fill the Cyber Education Gap For Young Australians

Together, McAfee and Life Education Australia Aim to Empower Hundreds of Thousands of Australian Students and Parents to Stay Safe Online

SYDNEY, Australia, June 28, 2012 – McAfee today announced a partnership with Life Education Australia, the largest non-government provider of health education to children and young people, which will see Australian students educated on how to stay safe online and develop positive online communication skills. McAfee will partner with Life Education Australia to expand its national health and wellbeing program to include cyber safety content from the beginning of the 2013 school year.

“According to McAfee’s recent Secret Life of Teens research, Australian teens are spending more time online than ever before, and being exposed to dangerous activities and behaviour – such as breaking the law through piracy (at a rate of over 30 per cent), posting sensitive personal information online, accessing pornography and cyber bullying. This is more common than parents realise. The report tells us that more than 50 per cent of Australian teens have witnessed cruelty and cyber bullying, and a staggering 68 per cent are posting personal content online, exposing them to cyber criminal activity,” said Redman.

The national cyber education program will take the form of a new Life Education Social Skills and Cybersafety module for middle primary students. Life Education will utilise McAfee’s expertise and experience in the security industry in creating Cybersafety content for upper primary students which will include strategies to deal with unsafe online situations.

“We understand the importance of teaching our kids about cyber safety and want to do something about it. Life Education is the ideal partner to help McAfee arm Australian kids with the information they need to build positive relationships and stay safe online. We are committed to providing parents and the community with ongoing education and access to cyber safety materials,” said Redman.

“Life Education Australia has been a trusted and valued partner of Australian schools for over thirty years, working with over 3500 schools and educating 620,000 students in 2011 alone. While delivering our program to schools over the past few years, we have received increasing requests from parents and teachers for a cyber safety and cyber bullying program,” said David Ballhausen, CEO of Life Education Australia.

“Children’s online behaviour becomes entrenched very early on and if they are not properly educated about cyber safety, they will not be prepared to handle the situations they will certainly face online as teenagers,” Redman said. “This is why we are joining with Life Education Australia to educate children about cyber safety starting in the middle primary years.”

McAfee and Life Education Australia have both identified a need for greater awareness-raising and cyber safety education aimed at young Australians. Life Education Australia’s mission is to empower children to make safe and healthy decisions, a vision which matches well with McAfee’s initiatives to fight cybercrime and help Australians stay safe and protected online.

“This national cyber education partnership is a program I am personally very proud of. I’m happy to say that our team at McAfee Australia will be actively involved in collaborating with Life Education to protect all Australian’s online by helping to bridge the cyber education gap,” said Redman.

The cyber security element of the program will align with the State, Territory and future National Curriculum covering communication, relationships, decision-making and safety. It will provide knowledge, skills and strategies to empower children to use technology safely, build positive relationships and contribute to the safety of others online.

The program will be officially launched and rolled out to schools across Australia from February 2013.

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About McAfee McAfee, a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), is the world's largest dedicated security technology company. McAfee delivers proactive and proven solutions and services that help secure systems, networks, and mobile devices around the world, allowing users to safely connect to the Internet, browse and shop the Web more securely. Backed by its unrivalled Global Threat Intelligence, McAfee creates innovative products that empower home users, businesses, the public sector and service providers by enabling them to prove compliance with regulations, protect data, prevent disruptions, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously monitor and improve their security. McAfee is relentlessly focused on constantly finding new ways to keep our customers safe. http://www.mcafee.com/au

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About Life Education: Life Education is the largest non-government provider of drug and health education to children and young people, Australia wide. It is well known for its popular mascot, Healthy Harold the Giraffe.

Life Education works to motivate, encourage and empower children and young people to exercise real choice – and make informed, safe and healthy lifestyle decisions, through its leading health education program.

In 2011 Life Education worked in 3,550 schools. Each of these schools self-selected to partner with it, purchase its services and make available its program to 620,000 students in their care.

Life Education is a registered charity, independent of both government and religion which has been operating since 1979.

Over 4 million students have participated in Life Education’s program over the past 32 years. For further information on Life Education please visit: www.lifeeducation.org.au.