Supporting Safer Internet Day 2023

The internet is a huge part of the lives of young people. Schoolwork, socialising, gaming, and looking up information are just a few ways we use it every day. With use, comes responsibility, so it's really important that both children and their parents are clued up on how to use the internet safely, in order to be confident and safe when it comes to navigating online spaces.

It's something that's really important to us, and that's why we're once again supporting Safer Internet Day.

What is Safer Internet Day?

Safer Internet Day is celebrated every February as a way to encourage the safe and positive use of digital technology for young people. This year the overarching theme is "Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online." with children's voices being centred at the heart of the day, hoping to answer three key questions about what they think internet safety support should look like.

• What issues really matter to children and young people?
• What changes do they want to see?
• How can we all work together to advocate for them moving forward? 

These are such important questions to answer, and allowing children and young people the space to answer them is a great way for parents, guardians, educators, and IT professionals to learn more about how children see the digital landscape. 

You can learn more about the goals of Safer Internet Day.

Find an IT provider who holds safety as a priority

The responsibility doesn't solely lie with teachers and parents. Internet and IT providers have a responsibility to ensure that their offering of digital safety tools have the best functionality possible. Internet filtering and other safety tools are much more effective when working in tandem with training.

Basic filtering systems offered by lots of IT companies without experience in the education sector might be able to restrict access to inappropriate web content, but in 2023 that isn't enough. Intelligent cloud-based web filtering software can discover and alert school staff of more nuanced safety concerns. 

As a trusted provider of IT support for schools, Computeam offers a practical, state-of-the-art alternative to basic filtering software. Security is a cloud-based solution that enables schools and trusts to secure their networks and help keep students safe. 

Listen to children and young people

This is a really important one, especially given that the theme of this year's Safer Internet Day is all about discussion. 

As much as training and technical solutions are vital, so is having young people's cooperation. By stopping to listen to what they feel they need to know and what information they would find helpful, you can also get their buy-in to their internet safety plans. They're also growing up with this technology, so are likely to come up with ideas that parents and teachers may not have even thought of! 

Having digital tools like Securly, our choice of state-of-the-art software that goes beyond basic filtering is important to be able to flag any changes in the emotional wellbeing of young people, especially if things like online bullying are being buried in emails or within shared documents, but that shouldn't be at the expense of talking to children giving them the space and confidence to share their online experiences.

Want to know more?

The internet is such an important and all-encompassing tool, and we take our responsibility to provide technical solutions to safaguard it for children's use incredibly seriously. But it really does take a village. For the strongest online security, you need all adults to be as informed as possible, as well as for young people to be informed and empowered alongside their internet use, as well as the most robust online tools possible. 

To learn more about our digital security offering, take a look at Computeam Connect. Please don't hesitate to get in touch for any help or guidance on this keystone issue.