“That ICPA Qld lobbies the Department of Education (DoE) to ensure that all online learning platforms, resources and digital tools developed, and implemented by Schools of Distance Education (SDEs), including software platforms such as ‘EduVenture’, are reviewed, tested and quality assured by independent digital safety and assurance professionals prior to student use, to ensure compliance with child safety, online safety and data protection standards and to minimise cyber safety, privacy and online security risks to students.”
‘EduVenture’ is a 2026 released SDE teacher designed online software on QLearn. QLearn and Canvas are global educational platforms utilised by SDEs for lesson delivery, primarily for ages five to twelve. In May 2026 these platforms were hacked by one of the world’s most significant hacking groups, exposing our very own children’s names, school names they attend, and their email addresses, that we know of thus far. These groups are specifically targeting children through online environments and exposing them to the serious online harm of the dark web marketplace.
‘EduVenture’ appears to have been developed without specialist User Interface Design/User Experience (UI/UX), cyber safety or Cyber/eSafety oversight. It incorporates social media-style communication and unmoderated chat functions that encourage behaviours similar to those which now have legislative restrictions for children under 16 years of age due to recognised online safety risks.
Further, with the use of this software and platform, our children are now inadvertently:
- exposing their own video footage and personal conversations to unknown data storage places
- participating in unmoderated processes, which normalise unsafe device usage practices
- accessing group discussion content that is shared instantly with all class participants without prior teacher review or moderation.
The implementation of restrictive online-only learning software without transparent quality assurance, moderation and independent review processes raises serious concerns regarding student safety, age-appropriate online engagement and the potential exposure of children as young as five to cyberbullying, inappropriate content, privacy risks and data manipulation. Rural and remote families should never be expected to accept inadequate, poorly safeguarded online learning environments as the standard for distance education in rural and remote schoolrooms.
The rollout of digital learning platforms without independent cyber safety, privacy, moderation and user-experience oversight raises significant concerns regarding student wellbeing, online safety and data protection for our rural and remote distance education students. Budgetary pressures should never compromise the safety, privacy and protection of students. In an online environment which is becoming increasingly difficult for children to safely navigate, the need for adequate funding to properly resource high standard, quality-assured, sufficiently reviewed Version 9 curriculum materials which can be offered in multi-modal formats has never been more urgent.
