Susan McLean
Susan McLean is Australia’s foremost expert in the area of cyber safety and was a member of Victoria Police for 27 years. Widely known as the ‘cyber cop’ she was the first Victoria Police Officer appointed to a position involving cyber safety and young people.
Established in March 2007, Cyber Safety Solutions has grown to be the most highly respected and in demand cybersafety consultancy in Australia.
Susan provides the highest standard of cybersafety education and support available to schools, companies and sporting organisations available in Australia and internationally backed up by over 28 years of experience in the digital space. With unsurpassed tertiary and other qualifications and experience, Susan continues to be the expert of choice as a truly independent expert and advisor.
Building Resilient Kids
Resilience is a term that has gained traction in recent years, becoming the “buzzword” if you will. It’s easy to see why. its a word that resonates with parents, carers, educators- anyone who is involved in the lives of children and teenagers, as we all have similar goals – namely, to develop strong, capable, well-balanced and above all, kind, decent, and resilient young people.
Throughout this book, a number of Australias best experts will touch on some of the biggest and most challenging influences on young people today – including cyber safety, pornography, anxiety and self-harm – and they offer not only current statistics and information, but strategies to help us as parents, educators and carers, to navigate this minefield and raise them to become confident, resilient people.
The definitive guide to raising safe, resilient kids in a digital age.
Our children are true digital natives, growing up in a world where their friendships, learning and even identity are shaped online. But with this comes risks that parents never experienced themselves. In recent years, alarming new threats have emerged – sextortion, blackmail, deepfakes and image-based abuse – adding to the ongoing dangers of cyberbullying, grooming, pornography, sexting and problematic screen use.
Growing Up Digital is the essential guide for today’s online world. Written by internationally recognised cyber-safety expert Susan McLean, this book tackles the urgent challenges now facing families.
With clarity, compassion and authority, McLean offers a conversational, easy-to-use handbook to give your children their ‘digital armour’. Packed with real-life case studies, up-to-date resources, clear explanations of the law and trusted links for further support, Growing Up Digital empowers parents and educators to act with confidence. From teaching teens how to manage their digital reputation and social media, to opening conversations about the toughest of issues, this is a practical roadmap for families navigating a rapidly changing landscape.
Susan McLean is the go-to voice for internet child safety, trusted by schools, governments and families across Australia and around the world. With no other resource offering the same depth of expertise or breadth of advice, Growing Up Digital is a must-have for every parent and teacher – a lifeline for raising a safe, resilient and informed generation in today’s online world.
Susan has backed all of the information she shared with facts and that is why I feel a greater empowerment to make sure I actively put the right controls and measures in place around our household usage of social media/apps and games. I will actively share the information from this forum as I strongly believe, being the actively alert parent who is “interrupting” a child’s online activity can make the difference between the life or death of a child.
Susan was an amazing speaker and her passion came out in her message. I was quite disturbed by some of the graphic content which we saw and cannot imagine how distressed my child would be if she was to come across this same content. I HIGHLY recommend ALL parents either do some research on or even better attend a session of Susan's.
The Growing up Online forum with Susan McLean was both fantastic and frightening at the same time. Knowing that we are living in a world where our children are immersed in technology daily and the consequences of a momentary lapse of judgement by some kids, is why if you have a spare two hours to attend, I urge you to make the effort to attend one of Susan McLean's upcoming sessions.
A succinct, cohesive presentation. Flowed and kept us interested. We made a large financial commitment to bringing our team of four and it was worth the outlay.
Susan was a good fit for the audience and was spot on with the way she pitched the information and related to the participants, she was excellent.
Susan is an excellent presenter. She is personable and easy to get on with. She is also quick, clever and witty. Her presentations were well received and contained a lot of excellent and current information.
Thank you for such an effective presentation, this was the most engaging and straight to the point information I have seen for students and I will be making recommendations to past colleagues who now work at other schools.
What Susan doesn’t know about Cybersafety is not worth knowing. She is absolutely brilliant and her presentations are dynamic and entertaining. She has the unique ability to connect with each audience from young people to adults.
Susan was absolutely brilliant. She opened my eyes to what our students are most likely getting up to and how to deal with it effectively and sensibly. We will be booking Susan for our whole school community as soon as we can.
Ms Susan Mclean was insightful and able to offer pertinent examples and advice based on her extensive professional experience in the field of police work and in particular cyberbullying.
She has always presented in an engaging and dynamic manner with up to the minute observations and patterns pertaining to cyber safety and young people. I would recommend Susan Mclean as she is a passionate and articulate advocate for improving the cyber safety of young people in our schools.
The PEGS community gained great insight from Mrs McLean’s vibrant and informative sessions. Teachers and students were given invaluable advice on how to safely manage online activities and parents, in particular, were reminded of the importance of vigilantly monitoring their child’s online behaviour.
Our main focus was to inform our staff, student and parent population about potential dangers and safety tips on how to assist the students in our care stay safe online. We were delighted with Susan’s practical, honest and no-nonsense approach and unanimously agree that she was instrumental in assisting us to fully understand the issue of cybersafety.
Since the presentation, my office has been inundated with Year 8 and 9 girls owning up to not treating each other appropriately. I had a parent phone me mentioning her daughter had changed her password and removed many “online friends”. I feel that the message got through.
A worthwhile investment! The material presented by Susan was realistic and user-friendly. She managed to connect with students, staff and parents presenting age-appropriate material that sent a strong message about the positives and negatives of our cyber world. In the future, All Saints’ College intends to build on the relationship we have made with this quality presenter.
Susan McLean makes cybersafety straightforward common sense. She gives parents and teachers the understanding to be able to manage fears confidently and effectively. Susan's wealth of practical experience in the issues surrounding cybersafety makes a world of difference to anyone lucky enough to hear her.
Subscribe to the CyberSafety Solutions newsletter
Keep up to date with the latest devlopments in staying safe online. Click subscribe below to sign up for our newsletter.
Subscribe
Why choose Susan?
Leading Cybersafety Expert
Australian expert and internationally renowned for her knowledge on all things cybersafety and young people.
Exceptional Qualifications
Tertiary and International, and with over 21 years experience in cyberspace
Unsurpassed Experience
in dealing with online issues across all platforms
Unique Understanding
of the school environment including Special Ed settings
Comprehensive Knowledge
of all current laws (criminal and civil) and a school's duty of care to its students as it applies to online issues. When and how to involve Police.
Crisis Management
and expert policy development.
Another child sex offender hiding in plain sight. They always have easy access to children and hold a position of trust.
Parent sessions next week are in NSW and South Australia. If you are close by and would like to attend, just give the school a ring to RSVP. Important topics to be covered include online radicalisation, sadistic online exploitation, sextortion and sexual choking as well as cyberbullying, sending nudes and the real effect of the SM ban. Not pleasant topics to discuss but so very important because if you don't know you cant protect.![]()
![]()
Tues 10th Nov - Australian Christian College Marsden Park![]()
![]()
Thursday 12th Nov - Redeemer Lutheran School Nuriootpa![]()
![]()
Copies of my new book will be on sale as well. Hope to see you there so please share and tag your friends.
I 100% support the author Kaz Cooke in these words about the convicted pedophile Craig Silvey and his non apology. I would have thought that part of his conviction would be a prohibition to use tech yet he published on his SubStack.That depraved Australian author most recently convicted of vile crimes against children has written a long 'apology' which isn't. It's a screed of narcissistic, self-pitying, avoidant bullshit. It is rage-inducing. I hope he realises no community will ever accept him or acknowledge him, unless it's as a warning to others. There is no redemption to be had. No publisher, author, festival, bookseller, librarian, school, writers group or any other associated organisation will ever have anything to do with him, and if they did there would be the equivalent of a community uprising and riot. The only thing we want from him is much more jail time. I'm shocked Substack is still hosting him and I'm sure his only followers will be police checkers, perverts and tabloid reporters. I hope he's never allowed to be alone with any child ever again, and that his digital activities are monitored forever. He talks about his 'community' in writing but I know all of us who work with words - and everyone else - agree. He is not our colleague, he is not an accepted member of any related community. Excuse my language but he can only shut the fuck up, fuck off and stay fucked off forever. Solidarity with survivors & everyone who had a tough childhood, lost money, and/or have mental health challenges yet choose not to become dangerous criminals who prey on little children.
Latest posts from my blog
SA Passes Revenge Porn Laws
State parliament has legislated penalties – including fines and jail time – for anyone who sends explicit images of a former partner… but ar
06 July, 2018
Kids, teenagers and technology with Susan McClean on Melbourne’s Light FM
Cyber safety expert, Susan McClean chats with Clayton about the new book “Sexts, Texts and Selfies“…
06 July, 2018
Susan talks to 3AW’s Neil Mitchel about the launch of her new book Sexts, Texts and Selfies
Listen to Susan McClean as she speaks to 3AW’s Neil Mitchel about the launch of her new book Sexts, Texts and Selfies. “It’
16 June, 2018
See all blog posts
The latest tweets from @TheCybercop1
Follow Susan McLean @TheCybercop1 on Twitter.
Couldn't connect with Twitter
