What Parents & Educators Need to Know about Health & Fitness Apps

Over time, more and more fitness apps have been finding their way into circulation. Usually free to download – at least initially – these apps claim to offer helpful advice and assistance in routine management to those looking to lead a healthier lifestyle.
While these platforms can be useful, they do present several safety concerns. These issues become more significant when we consider that children and young people can use these apps to stay active – whether out of concern for their own health or for reasons of body image. Our guide breaks down the risks of health and fitness apps and offers expert advice on how to address these concerns to safeguard younger users.

Dr Claire Sutherland
Dr Claire Sutherland is an online safety consultant, educator and researcher who provides online safety information to young people, parents, teachers and external agencies. She has over 11 years’ experience teaching in schools and has carried out research for the Office of eSafety Commission, Australian government comparing internet use and sexting behaviour of young people in the UK, USA and Australia.
Claire has developed and implemented anti-bullying and cyber safety polices for schools in Australia and assisted the implementation of the National eSmart Framework. She has a PhD after focusing her research on the perceptions of cyberbullying of children, parents and teachers and has written numerous academic papers as part of her PhD, presenting at OzChi conference in Sydney.
Claire has experience as a primary school teacher working in Scotland and Australia. She was a school transition co-ordinator, team leader, ICT co-ordinator and wellbeing co-ordinator and wrote a cyber safety column for the school newsletter informing the community of new apps or answering parent concerns. Claire supports school communities to embrace technology while educating them about the risks and empowering them with practical skills and resilience to deal with negative online experiences.