A collaboration between Bundy High students, PCYC, Police and John Krosch Media has produced two videos that focus on important messages for our youth.
The IOWNIT program, that has been running for over 10 years in Queensland, gives young people a real voice, said PCYC Branch Manager Sergeant John Kendall.
“IWONIT is a program that allows young people to come up with a crime prevention awareness campaign to bring awareness to issues that are impacting them and their peers,” he said.
“In previous years topics have included drink spiking, inhalant abuse, Domestic and Family Violence, anxiety and consent.
“On this occasion the students came up with two very pressing topics for young people, being Tik Tok and sexting.
“Police deal with both issues on a regular basis so these were topics we were very excited about working with the kids on.”
The videos were produced by Bundaberg High Year 10 Drama Students.
“The kids chose the topics and they picked them as they were prevalent to them and their friends.
“It is important to allow the kids to choose the topics because they are the ones living amongst it all and seeing the effects it has on them and their peers.”
“The aim was to create awareness around how serious tik tok and sexting can be and to hopefully encourage young people to respect their bodies and not make the devastating effect of sharing private images of themselves with others, which could easily be shared to other without their permission or knowledge.”
Bundaberg State High School Drama Coordinator Leisa Ross said it was very worthwhile for the students involved.
“This was a fantastic project for our Drama students to be involved in as exploring, researching and writing about real issues they were passionate about motivated the students to create some of their best work in such a short time frame,” Leisa said.
“Working with John Krosch also gave them some valuable further insight into the film industry outside of the classroom context.”
Normally the videos take 10 weeks to produce, but as COVID-19 restrictions came in, the program was shorted to 5 weeks.
“In previous programs the students did everything from script writing through to final production,” Sergeant Kendall said.
“However on this occasion, due to time restraints, the kids did everything but the final production and John Krosch was able to get it completed in a more timely manner under the circumstances.”
Despite not having a “grand launch” the videos have been very well received by Bundaberg High School students, their family and friends and the wider community and plans are already underway for next year.
“We will definitely be running the program next year, as it is very much enjoyed by all those that participate and it is such a worthy program to allow young people to tell us about issues and bring awareness to them from their level and perspective.”
You can see the videos prepared by the Bundaberg High School Year 10 students, in collaboration with John Krosch Media, below.
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