Safer Internet Day on 7th February is Connecting Generations with the slogan “Discovering the digital world together safely”.

by Rune H. Rasmussen

Safer Internet Day (SID) is organised annually by Insafe in February to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people – all over the world.

This year, the event is centred on the theme "Connecting generations and educating each other", where young and old alike are encouraged to "discover the digital world together...safely"!

In the UK, the The UK Safer Internet Centre states that they “will be using SID 2012 to create a positive call to action for families to unite and share Internet know-how to help stay safe. In particular, the message for parents, carers and grandparents is to use Safer Internet Day as an opportunity to have a conversation about staying safe online with your young people, sharing your knowledge and also asking them for their advice. “

Get involved
There are many ways to get involved in the event and help raise awareness of Internet safety. Help spread the word about the Day or run activities with children and young people, parents and carers and others in the community.

Run activities in your school or workplace. Visit saferinternetday.org to find local events or to find contact information if you’d like to organise a SID activity.

Safer Internet Day Live - Internet Radio. For the second year running, the UK Safer Internet Centre will be presenting Safer Internet Day Live; a marathon radio programme on Safer Internet Day from 9am to 9pm (GMT) and broadcasting over the Internet and around the world. A fully interactive experience, listeners will be encouraged to text, email, Skype, IM and even phone in with questions to challenge the panel of experts from around the world.

Listening to young people - Inspiring an inclusive interactive Internet safety debate. The UK Safer Internet Centre will be hosting a multi-generational and multi-stakeholder debate in Parliament on the afternoon of 7th February 2011. This debate will bring together a panel including young people, teens, parents, carers and grandparents alongside Parliamentarians, the Internet Industry and others to think about what advice each of the different audiences wants to be receiving about staying safe online, and who they think should be delivering that advice.

More information:

Safer Internet Day 2012 - Get involved!

United Kingdom Safer Internet Centre

SID Kit for schools
For the first time, school packs have been designed to bring together some great resources for raising Internet safety awareness.  The resources can be used as best suits your local circumstances.

For example, you may choose to use all the resources or you may prefer to take parts of the kit and/or adapt them to your own needs. As well as this, even though Safer Internet Day is celebrated on February 7th, you may choose to raise the profile of online safety another day or over a longer period of time.

Two different kits are available:

• Primary resource pack: A poster to promote the theme, a primary assembly PowerPoint and accompanying script, five quick classroom activities and an in depth lesson plan for a class community project. The aim is to utilise the technological skills of the class and to share these with a chosen audience within the local area to create a communal learning experience.

• Secondary resource pack: A poster to promote the theme, five quick classroom activities, an assembly PowerPoint and a supporting script and an in depth lesson plan for a debate. The aim of the debate lesson plan is to prepare pupils to stage a debate about the Internet; the young people will put themselves in the shoes of others and consider other people’s points of view.

More information and find resources

Download 2012 Schools pack

Links:

Safer Internet Day website

UK Safer Internet Centre

Download SID leaflet PDF