Safer Internet Day 2018
On the 06 February 2018, the UK and countries around the world celebrated Safer Internet Day 2018. The event aimed to inspire a national conversation about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically and creatively.
The UK Safer Internet Centre coordinated activities in the UK and launched a report into the role of technology in young people’s relationships.
The Digital Friendships Report surveyed 2000 young people across the UK, aged 8 to 17. The report revealed that young people use a variety of platforms on a daily basis, with Youtube, WhatsApp and Snapchat as the top three.
83% of young people said they had experienced people being kind to them online in the last year, but 49% also said that they had someone being mean to them in the last year.
You can read more about the UK Safer Internet Centre and the Digital Friendships Report on their site, here.
The Minister for Children and Social Care, Huw Irranca-Davies AM, marked Safer Internet Day by asking parents in Wales to be more involved in their children’s activities online.
The warning came after the National Survey for Wales, published in 2017, said that though 95% of children aged 7 to 15% in Wales used the internet at home, only 56% of households used parental control filters on their internet connections. You can read more on the Welsh Government site.
Children in Wales supported Safer Internet Day by joining the online conversation. We tweeted about our joint cross-party group meeting last October. The Cross Party Group on Children and Young People and the Cross Party Group on Preventing Child Sexual Exploitation met to talk about online safety.
Young people from Cardiff Youth Council attended to give their views on online safety, facilitated by staff from our Young Wales participation initiative. They said that it was vital that young people’s experiences online were listened to and that parents and decision makers should talk to and work with them to ensure that being online is safe.
The UK Safer Internet Centre has advice and support resources online for parents, professionals and children and young people, who want to be safer online, including conversation starters for parents. You can see what’s available, here.
