Safer Internet Day 2014 - ‘Let’s Create a Better Internet Together’

Safer Internet Day (SID) is organised by Insafe in February of each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world. Safer Internet Day is now celebrated in more than 100 countries worldwide, and across all continents.

Safer Internet Day 2014 will be celebrated on 11 February 2014 with the campaign ‘Let’s create a better internet together’.

The All-Wales School Liaison Core Programme provides education for children around online safety throughout the year and supports Safer Internet Day by offering special assemblies to schools to raise further awareness of staying safe online. Children are becoming computer literate from an earlier age, so it has become more and more important to educate them on staying safe at an early age.

One of these assemblies is Think B4 U Click, which is aimed at KS3/4. Speaking about a Think B4 U Click assembly delivered by PC Gavin Puckett, one head of year said: “Excellent assembly – well delivered, age appropriate and just what was needed with that age group.”

Throughout the year, the All-Wales School Liaison Core Programme educates children from the age of seven on internet safety where they are introduced to the SMART rules. For the youngest children, we teach them only to share messages and pictures with real-world friends. Moving on to nine year-olds we have Be Cyber Safe, which is built on our award-winning short film, ‘Megan's Story’. In the film, set in primary school and pupils homes, Megan is a victim of cyberbullying after other pupils trick her into practicing her music lessons on webcam. We aim to educate pupils about the fact that you lose control of an image or video when it is sent.

For secondary pupils aged 11-14 we run Look Who's Talking and Think U Know. Look Who's Talking introduces the story of a secondary pupil named Bethan, who is tricked into an online relationship which is not what it appears to be. Bethan's story introduces pupils to the concept that dangerous adults may pretend to be children online.

For 14-16 year olds there is the lesson Dangerous Deception, which is a new lesson for this year for those who may be at risk of sexual exploitation. The Dangerous Deception short film tells the story of Lucy, who believes she is trying out for a modelling agency but is actually befriending dangerous men who abuse girls and young women. We warn pupils to look for signs they are being exploited by an adult, as well as warning them about those who put them under pressure to send sexualised images.