Keeping your information private, safe, and secure is a big deal for us. That’s why we ask you to create an account as soon as you visit our website; it allows us to keep everything you tell us nice and secret, shhhhh…

When you first login you’ll be asked to enter your name, date of birth and address, and then you’ll be asked give your consent to take part in the Future Proofing Study. You will only be able to login if your parent or guardian has already given their consent for you the be involved in the study.

From then on, you’ll be able to login using your mobile number and a password that we will send by SMS each time you visit our website. If your mobile number changes, you can let us know when we come to your school and we can update it for you.

Each time you login to this website, we’ll ask you to answer some questions about how you’ve been feeling lately. All of your information is confidential and stored automatically on our secure servers at the Black Dog Institute in Sydney. Your information is recorded against a number (not your name) and can only be viewed by the Future Proofing research team. All use of your information will be in line with the Institute’s privacy policy; it’ll never be shared with anyone else without your permission.

If you want to be deleted from our system, email your request through to: futureproofing@blackdog.org.au

The online surveys ask about sensitive topics like thoughts or plans of suicide. If your answers tell us you might be at risk of suicide, we’ll want to make sure you’re OK. We will confidentially pass your name onto your school counsellor so they can check in with you. If you change schools during the course of this study, we will get in touch with your parent or guardian instead. When you are in Year 12, the surveys will ask about sexual abuse. Answering these questions is optional. If you tell us you have been abused, we are legally required to let your school know so that a report can be made to the Department of Family and Community Services. If, by then, you have left the school you went to when you started the study, we will talk to your parent or guardian instead.

As the Future Proofing Study is managed by the Black Dog Institute, we also make sure that we comply with all of the Institute’s policies on privacy. To read about this, visit here.

If you have questions or concerns about any of this, feel free to email the team at: futureproofing@blackdog.org.au