Tuesday 12 January 2010

Safer Internet Day – 9 February 2010

Safer Internet Day is a European-wide initiative and is the one day in the calendar that will give a focus to internet safety issues such as cyberbullying, dealing with upsetting and illegal content online, sexual abuse and grooming. There are a range activities taking place across the week (from Monday 8th – Friday 12th February) and across the continent to help protect young people online.  You can get involved too.

As part of the public awareness coordination role on behalf of the UK, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre have launched a micro-site at www.thinkuknow.co.uk/saferinternetdayuk which has been designed to give schools, teachers, parents, youth workers and child protection specialists some ideas and suggestions about how to get involved.  CEOP will also be launching new resources to teach online safety to 4-7 year old children.

Registering on the site will also provide access to the various educational resources – like assembly programmes and primary and secondary aged resources – provided free by CEOP and other organisations.  There is also an interactive map for organisations to report back on their activities which will be made available to media outlets to report on in the local communities.

CEOP are also launching a competition for young people called ‘Think before you post’. This competition involves asking young people from the UK to create a short film (between 1-3 minutes long) illustrating what this theme means to them and how they would explain this sentiment to their peers. Entrants can be from young people between the ages of 8-16 and can enter as an individual, small group of up to five young people or as a class entry. Once moderated, the films are then to be posted on the Thinkuknow YouTube channel.

If you are taking part in Safer Internet Day this year, you can download free online banners to go onto websites that say ‘We’re supporting Safer Internet Day 2010’ to raise awareness of the initiative and advertise your participation.

Visit www.thinkuknow.co.uk/saferinternetdayuk for further details.

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