Safer Internet Day 2023 – ‘Making space for conversations about life online’
Tuesday 7 February is officially Safer Internet Day, a day where children, parents and teachers focus and celebrate the very best ways to keep young people as safe as possible while using the internet. As you know here at Crescent we place a great deal of emphasis on teaching our pupils the importance of Digital Citizenship, of not just keeping themselves and others safe online, but also in becoming digital producers and creators themselves. Through this we hope to empower Crescent pupils to play a positive and active role in the online world which become such an enormous part of their lives, not simply just to be passive consumers but active contributors, to help to shape and inspire a much better digital world of the future.
Of course this would not be possible without the support of parents, and the theme for this year’s Safer Internet Day is ‘Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online’, creating a safe space for frank and open discussions with children about the internet, how they see it, and what issues really worry them. During Computing lessons over the week we will be encouraging our pupils to do just this, to talk openly, honestly and without fear about how they feel about the online world, what makes it brilliant, and what stresses them out.
It’s never too early or too late to start an online safety conversation at home, and to keep it going. Having these conversations with children about their online lives can help you gain a deeper understanding about what they love doing and what they are concerned about. It also gives them the confidence to open up if things go wrong and gives you the opportunity to support them when they need it the most. If you would like to do this at home but don’t know where to start, please take a look at this guide, or the weblinks below, full of fantastic tips for getting started:
https://www.internetmatters.org/safer-internet-day/
If you would like any further help with this, or are after more detailed guidance on anything in particular, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
