Organised by the Safer Internet Centre Fiji, the event included participants from Fiji and across the Pacific region, representing civil society groups, youth activist groups, academia, the technical community, policy and regulatory institutions, and financial and other sectors. 

The Pacific region accounts for quite a large number of social media users, mainly seeing active usage on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Viber, and WhatsApp. 

Recently, Fiji has seen a noticeable spike in the number of cyberbullying cases, online hate speech, misinformation and disinformation, and violence against women, children and other vulnerable groups. Such issues are primarily attributed to poor cyber hygiene, unethical online behaviour, and the lack of effective digital literacy and awareness. Many of these growing cyber and online safety issues are directly linked to an increase in people’s online presence and frequency of internet use, unsupervised internet access by children, and higher data consumption (especially for social media) during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the age distribution of internet users, 1 in 3 internet users globally (or about 800 million) are children who can easily become victims of dangers online such as cyberbullying, digital violence and abuse, grooming, hate speech and so on. 

In the context of Fiji’s online safety landscape, Safer Internet Centre Fiji presented and discussed the real issues faced by its citizens from a regulatory perspective and the constraining factors that limit engagement and dialogue with wider youth groups. The open discussions also reflected on best practices and the important role played by parents, educators, industries, and various stakeholders at large in promoting and strengthening a safer online environment for everyone. 

With Safer Internet Day’s special focus on children and young people, we need to ensure that, collectively, we promote, protect, respect, and fulfil the rights of all children and young people when they go online, and SID2022 has provided a focus for this ongoing work carried out by Safer Internet Centre Fiji. 

Let’s ensure that the voices of Fiji’s children and young people are heard by continuing with our commitment to creating a better internet for everyone.

Find out more about Safer Internet Day celebrations in Fiji by visiting the Fiji Safer Internet Day Committee profile page, or find out more about Safer Internet Day more generally here.