Lilly Howes, a UWA Psychological and Behavioural Sciences student, is helping parents and carers navigate the online world their children are engaging in through her internship with The Kids Research Institute Australia (The Kids).
Undertaking the internship through the McCusker Centre for Citizenship, Lilly is on track to contribute 100 hours based at Perth Children’s Hospital with The Kids, where she is supporting the Beacon app project.
“Beacon is a cyber safety education app, designed to keep parents and carers up to date with reliable and valuable information to help keep their kids safe online,” Lilly said.
“My role involves writing new articles that align with current and emerging social media platforms, laws relating to social media, including Australia’s newly passed age restrictions, and ensuring the existing content on the app is relevant and current.”
Rachael Heaphy-Scaife, Project Coordinator and internship supervisor, said that Lilly’s contributions had been invaluable to the project.
“Lilly has the unique perspective of growing up with social media. From being across current social media trends, creating content, working with our established partnerships and working across the team, Lilly has been such a pleasure to have at as an intern,” Mrs Heaphy-Scaife said.
For Lilly, interning with The Kids has been a motivational boost.
“At the Kids Research Institute, I am witnessing doctors and highly qualified researchers making an impact for our community. The internship has reinforced the value of education for me and motivated me to strive for the best in my studies.”