DIGITAL WELLBEING

SECURITY FRAMEWORK (DWSF)

Building digital wellbeing programs that last.

A step-by-step framework for establishing, assessing, strengthening, and sustaining digital wellbeing in schools to help prepare the next generation for the challenges of the internet.

Nearly 3 in 4 young people have encountered harmful content online 1. As schools worldwide rethink their digital safeguards and governments introduce social media restrictions, society is taking decisive action against these digital risks.

With clear risk visibility, prioritised resource allocation, and a proven duty-of-care framework, DWSF equips children, teachers, and parents with the tools and knowledge to navigate the digital world safely.

Our project is part of a growing shift from reactive crisis management to proactive digital resilience — helping schools move ahead of harm, not just respond to it. Together, we can build a safer online environment and foster responsible digital citizenship.

We are preparing to trial the assessment with schools soon. If you'd like to learn more or get involved, please reach out.


17%+

Cyberbullying continues to increase

One in six school-aged children experiences cyberbullying. Since 2018, traditional school bullying has held steady — but cyberbullying keeps climbing, following children's lives further online.

Source: World Health Organisation (WHO)

50%+

Surge in Severe Incidents

Reports of high-severity online harms targeting school-aged children have seen continuous multi-year increases.

Source: AIC Youth Cyber Safety & Harm Reports

70%+

School Spillover

The majority of off-campus cyberbullying and digital conflicts directly impact classroom dynamics and student wellbeing.

Source: Cyberbullying Research Center Studies

How the Assessment Works

Built on proven cybersecurity methodologies (NIST CSF / ISO27001), framed by social psychology research and tailored for educational leaders.

1

Self-Diagnostic

Complete a targeted assessment, evaluating digital wellbeing governance arrangements and safety training programs for each group.

2

Maturity Scoring

Responses are measured across 4 maturity tiers: Ad-hoc, Reactive, Defined, and Optimised.

3

Gap Analysis

The DWSF toolkit identifies critical blind spots across student safety, parent engagement, technical controls, and governance.

4

Action Roadmap

Receive a practical, prioritised action plan tailored to raise your school's online safety maturity level.

The DWSF Solution: 5-Pillar Benchmarking Framework

DWSF is based on the 4Cs of online harm, a framework that groups all forms of online risk into four categories; Content, Contact, Conduct, Contract.2.

We use this internationally recognised classification as the core of our how we evaluate a school's digital safety maturity. We then embed each with our experience of industry security best-practice and behavioural science research and wrap them all with a governance layer to ensure visibility, accountability and continuous improvement.

2. Engaged
Parent
3. Insightful
Educators
4. Accessible
Help
1. Educated
Child
DWSF
5. GOVERNANCE

1. Educated Child

Assesses student digital wellbeing awareness training; literacy, agency, clear reporting channels, and peer support systems. Ensures students can identify risks and safely ask for help for themselves and their peers.

2. Engaged Parent

Evaluates community outreach; family workshops, and transparent communication regarding home-to-school device rules and digital citizenship.

3. Insightful Educator

Ensures Educators are equipped with the knowledge & resources; to be up-to-date with harmful online trends, identifying, responding & supporting potentially harmful digital activity.

4. Accessible Help

Evaluates easily reachable & trusted reporting tools, student support pathways, clear staff escalation protocols, incident response readiness, anonymous reporting mechanisms, and immediate crisis support.

5. Governance

Provides overarching executive leadership, policy frameworks, staff compliance training, and continuous legal duty-of-care alignment across all pillars.

The Benefits of a Digital Wellbeing Maturity Assessment

Clear Baseline

Understand your actual protection capabilities instead of relying on assumptions or irrelevant policies.

Prioritised Budgeting

Direct limited resources and prioritise investment exactly where risks and operational gaps are highest.

Stakeholder Confidence

Demonstrate proactive duty of care to parents, school boards, and education regulators.

Proactive Culture

Shift school operations from reacting to online crises toward sustained prevention and individual resilience.

About Us

Philip Sandamas / Founder

Security Professional & Online Safety Advocate

Philip is a security professional with over two decades helping government departments and organisations enhance their physical and cyber protections.

As a parent, Philip noticed other parents grow increasingly concerned about how much time their children spend online.

That concern sparked an idea: combine cybersecurity industry best-practice with psychology principles and apply them to online safety.

The result is a framework that helps schools build a Digital Wellbeing Program from scratch — or assess and strengthen an existing one — so protective measures can adapt and improve over time and always do the very best to enable our society to grow and be prosperous.

Do you wish to help strengthen our children's digital safety?

Join us in pioneering safer digital environments for students. Reach out today to learn more, participate in pilot assessments or collaborate on framework development.

Get Involved
Get Involved

    1. eSafety Commissioner, "The Online Experiences of Children in Australia (2024–25 survey of 3,454 children aged 10–17)

    2. NSPCC UK The 4 Cs of online safety