PROFILE
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. In 2003 she was the Victoria Police Region Four Youth Officer of the Year. She has also been awarded The National Medal and the Victoria Police Service Medal and 2nd Clasp, and the National Police Medal.
In 1994, Susan took her first report of cyberbulllying involving a group of Year 8 school girls. Having identified the then emerging problem of internet harassment and witnessed first hand the significant increase in issues relating to internet misuse over the past years, Susan began to research the issue and looked to the international arena for evidence of exemplar practices. In August 2006, she travelled to the United States of America, where she completed the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children’s, ‘Protecting Children On-line’ training program, and then travelled to Dallas, Texas where she attended and completed training at the internationally recognised 4th Annual Internet Crimes Against Children Conference where she participated in many training programs. She also spent time working with the Dallas Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) taskforce team.
Susan established and managed the Victoria Police Cyber Safety Project that ran from March to October 2007, which researched and reported on the issue of internet safety as it applied to young people and adults with an intellectual disability. It is remains the only such research completed in Australia.
Susan established Cyber Safety Solutions in March 2007 and this has grown to be the most highly respected and in demand cybersafety consultancy in Australia. She is also in demand internationally as a leading expert in online safety.
Susan is one of only two Australians to have successfully completed the ‘University Certificate in Child Safety on the Internet’ from the University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom. In August 2012 she re-attended the renowned Dallas Crimes Against Children’s Conference where she updated her extensive knowledge and then spent time at Meta USA meeting with key people and discussing child online safety issues, reporting practices and general issues surrounding the use/abuse of social media by Australians especially teens and young people.
Susan was the first person in Australia to complete the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children’s (USA) Teaching Digital Citizenship Training (Nov 2015) and has completed the CEOP (UK) training course on Keeping Children Safe Online. She also has qualifications from Fox Valley Technical College USA.
Susan is unique in her vast knowledge and expertise in this area and is the only person in Australia with her specific background, experience and qualifications. She is a sought-after presenter and advisor and has delivered keynote presentations, written papers and regularly provides professional development for those working in education and other key youth stakeholders. She also works with students in the classroom and provides engaging parent education sessions.
Susan provides consultancy services to a range of organizations including government and non-government bodies, state education departments, catholic education, Independent Schools, adolescent psychologists, School Chaplains, Foster Care organisations, NFP’s, magistrates, sporting bodies, corporate entities, law firms, mental health bodies and Medical Practitioners. She also presents with two forensic pediatricians on the subject of technology facilitated child sexual abuse.
Susan is employed by elite sporting bodies such as Tennis Australia, The AFL (Australian Football League), Cricket Australia where she presented to the Australian Team, State teams both male and female as well as junior development squads. She has given expert evidence at the NSW Government Legislative Council’s Standing Committee hearing into the bullying of children and young people also to a Federal Government Inquiry on a related issue. She was also invited to submit a paper and give evidence into the Victorian Governments review of the use of child pornography legislation to those young people involved in ‘sexting’ including the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and was invited to submit comment to the Federal Government’s Inquiry into the Criminal Code Amendment (Misrepresentation of Age to a Minor) Bill 2013.
She was a member of the Federal Government’s Online Safety Working Group (OCWG) until it was disbanded in 2019 and was the only independent member of this group. She has authored the Cyber Safety Policy for AFL Country and the Australian Karting Association as well as the Cybersafety Policy for Netball Victoria and the Western Australia Sports Federation where her template policy is being used as a model for best practice in every sporting code in Western Australia.
Susan has also provided training for School based Police Officers in New South Wales. She regularly appears on television in Australia and internationally as one of the most sought after and influential commentators and acknowledged experts on cyberbullying in the world. She has spoken on Australian and international radio as well as being sought after for print and film articles for Bloomberg, Spanish National News, AlJezeera, 7Days Dubai, BBC 5Live and NTN24 South America.
She was the featured expert in the Leader Newspapers, ‘Don’t Hurt’ campaign which aimed to raise the awareness of cyberbullying and its devastating effects in the community. She has also been featured in two stories on 60 minutes Australia about the consequences of ‘sexting’ titled, ‘One Click from Disaster’, which is now being used as a valuable teaching resource in High Schools, and in a story called ‘Chloe’s Law’ which looked at the sometimes-tragic consequences of cyberbullying. Susan was also interviewed for the ABC science show Catalyst, which looked at the issue of internet gaming addiction and the science behind these games. Susan is the commentator of choice for media outlets around the world on the issue of cybersafety, cybercrime and all online abuse.
In December 2017, Susan was invited to speak at the Children’s Global Media Summit hosted by the BBC in Manchester where she was the only invited Australian speaker. She also was part of a panel hosted by the BBC’s Sam Walker together with Professor Sonia Livingstone (LSE) Tessy Ojo (CEO The Diana Award) and Adelle Onyango.
Her presentations are vibrant and engaging and draw on her many years experience working in cyberspace. They are suitable as standalone conference keynote presentations, keynotes followed by a workshop presentation, workshops on their own or as an engaging after dinner speaker whose style is very conversational and full of both serious and amusing antidotes gained from her vast experiences. Susan brings a wealth of knowledge and a practical down to earth element to her presentations. She speaks to over 250,000 students and tens of thousands of adults every year.
She also has a unique understanding of the education system having worked with schools for over 25 years. She understands a school’s legal responsibility, both Criminal and Civil & has extensive knowledge of Duty of Care in the education sector. Susan is acutely aware of the wide range of issues confronting schools in the 21st Century, especially in the digital space. She has been accepted by the courts as an expert witness. Susan has authored the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s parent resources in relation to all things cyber and provided comprehensive fact sheets and online learning modules to parents. She assists schools to their review of relevant cybersafety related policies and provides pro bono consultancy for crisis management.
Susan has an in-depth understanding of an organisation’s legal obligations such as ‘duty of care’ and how that applies to online issues/behaviors and is an expert in cybersafety/social media policy review and development. She is the presenter of choice for many corporate organisations such as Myer, AMEX, Supreme Court Victoria, The City of Melbourne, The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne, The Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick, Peter McCallum Cancer Centre, Latitude Financial, Goldman Sachs, Australian Computer Society, The Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers (AIPIO), ME Bank, IXOM, BUPA, Asahi Beverages, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, JP Morgan Chase, Red Cross Life Blood and Coles. She is a published author with her first book, a definitive guide for parents, carers and educators, Sexts, Texts & Selfies – how to keep your children safe in the digital space (Penguin). It has sold over 40,000 copies. The fully revised second edition of this book was released on 28th May 2018. It has now been translated and published in Taiwan.
Susan is a true expert in this field with established university qualifications in this field together with unsurpassed experience in dealing with these issues. From September to December 2018, she was appointed by the New South Wales Department of Education to assist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg with a review of the personal use of mobile phones during the school day. She was also invited to consult with the current New South Wales government when in opposition on the same issue.
Susan is a passionate advocate for child safety online and has established an enviable working relationship with most of the key players in the online world who value her extensive knowledge, balanced commentary, and commitment. She has is regularly invited to present on the international stage. The major companies such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X) and YouTube defer to her with relation to issues affecting Australian Children. She has been asked to review prior to launch in Australia, Google’s YouTube for kids. She is also a member of the Meta Australia Safety Advisory group. Law Enforcement, corporations, schools, parents and children themselves find Susan knowledgeable, approachable and most importantly, she often has the ability to assist when others have failed. Susan is an Ambassador for Collective Shout and Positive Schools and is a Board Member of SafeTeens Online.
