While every day is a good day to promote kids online safety, February 9 2021 will see parents, children, and government organizations celebrate Safer Internet Day an annual day designed to raise awareness of the ways in which we can make the online world safe for all users.
What is Safer Internet Day?
Safer Internet Day has been celebrated globally every February since 2004 and from humble beginnings, has now spread to over 170 countries.
The day aims to bring all stakeholders parents, carers, teachers and policy makers together with the goal of making the internet a better and safer place for all, particularly young users.
The theme for 2021 is Together for a better internet and world-wide celebrations will be held on Tuesday 9 February.
How can I celebrate?
In Australia, eSafety celebrates Safer Internet Day each and every year with a range of events, activities and resources.
The eSafety Commissioner is an independent statutory office supported by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and is the first government agency in the world committed to keeping citizens safe online. eSafety produces educational content and has various legislative powers that can be harnessed to foster online safety.
This year, eSafety is marking Safer Internet Day through the release of their new research document Digital Lives of Aussie Teens. In addition to this, two new resources for young children are set to be published; Swoosh, Glide and Rule Number 5 (a picture book) and My Family Rules by Lah-Lah.
Alongside these fantastic resources, two webinars will be occurring that are designed to target and educate young people and their parents; Be a eSafe kid: Fake news, real harms’ and Cyberbullying and online drama’.
eSafety is encouraging all individuals, be they young people, parents or work colleagues, to initiate the conversation in their community as to how we can keep each other safe online.
Strategies to keep your kids safe online
Kids online safety is an ongoing concern for parents, educators, and government organisations. Whilst the online world contains many fantastic educational resources, it is also filled with risks risks that young children are particularly susceptible to.
Parents and caregivers should consider implementing the following strategies to keep their kids safe online:
- Encourage open conversations: Talk to your kids openly about internet safety and the kinds of dangers that they might encounter in the online world. Check in with them to ask about their favourite websites and discuss what kind of content is appropriate for their age group.
- Monitor their online activity: Standing guard over your child’s shoulder and monitoring their every online move is not a particularly good idea and is likely to lead to heated arguments rather than an open, trusting relationship. However, you should ensure all connected devices are located in a central room so that you can keep watch over the amount of time your kids are spending in front of a screen and check in with them as is appropriate.
- Implement parental controls: Parental controls, whether accessed through internet security software or via your browser, are an excellent tool that can be used to protect your children from accessing inappropriate online content.
- Discuss social media: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter all have a minimum user age for most social media platforms, it is 13. Despite this, many young children want to access these websites to share photos and chat with friends. Discuss openly both the benefits and dangers of social media and set boundaries that you and your child are happy with.
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Author Bio:
Bridget
Bridget is a writer and editor, currently living in Melbourne. She is a copywriter for Newpath Web and loves working with words of all shapes and sizes. When not playing around with punctuation and grammar, she enjoys travelling and curating her Spotify playlists.
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I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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