IN 2010, 17 PRIMARY and secondary schools participated in the Melbourne Football Club’s Digital Demons program.
 
The Digital Demons program, powered by joint major sponsor Kaspersky, educates communities about safe, respectful and responsible behaviours in the digital world.

The students and teachers attended E-Safety conferences, facilitated by E-Safety expert and founder of Cybersafe Kids, Robyn Treyvaud.
 
Once armed with information about E-Safety and online reputations, the students produced multimedia projects.
 
The projects will be used in each school in order to inform the students and wider school community about the dangers young people face online.

Schools from the City of Casey which participated in the Digital Demons Program had the opportunity to showcase their multimedia presentations to Melbourne CEO Cameron Schwab, along with general manager of football Chris Connolly, Digital Demons Ambassador Jack Watts, City of Casey CEO Mike Tyler and Kaspersky Lab director of community relations Alexey Gromyko.

The AFL’s school program manager Mark Riddiford, who was also in attendance, reflected on the night by saying, “The presentations completed by the various schools were nothing short of outstanding and clearly reinforce that cyber bullying is an issue that students, teachers and parents are concerned about.”

Melbourne’s objective is to develop a world class e-safety program aimed at parents, teachers, students and community groups.
 
It will not only assist them with navigating the ever-changing digital landscape, but it gives parents and teachers the opportunity to communicate with their students about online dangers and reputation management in a relaxed environment.