A leading Australian cyber expert says parents should be talking to their children about online safety, what they should look out for and how to responsibly use the internet.

Australian Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology, Dr Tobias Feakin said these were the types of discussions he had with his children when they were very young.

“I don’t often bring my kids into any public conversation but I was talking to them about online safety issues from the age of five,” he said during an interview with The Fiji Times on Wednesday.

Dr Feakin said when his eldest child turned seven, the discussions were escalated to data ethics and “who owns his data.”

“Those aren’t bad conversations to be having with children as parents.

“And there are source materials that the E-Safety Commission in Fiji will provide to help parents have that conversation with their children and start as a good source of information.

“But I absolutely agree with you, schools need to be a primary source of that as well because a lot of the source material that children will use are placed on the internet.”