Better Internet for Kids

In Ireland, almost 180,000 people took part in events, activities, and campaigns to highlight Safer Internet Day 2020. The organisations and schools that registered their events can be viewed on the interactive map on the Webwise Safer Internet Day Hub: www.webwise.ie/saferinternetday

Here is a small snapshot of some of the activities that took place across the country.

On the 15th of January, Webwise hosted the Safer Internet Day Ambassador Training Day in Google HQ. Over 100 students from across Ireland gathered together to learn new skills and activities to help them plan and prepare for running their own internet safety awareness raising campaign in their school, clubs or organisations. The aim is to make Safer Internet Day a success in communities and schools across Ireland.

Part of the new technology explained section of the Webwise website, https://www.webwise.ie/news/explained-what-are-deepfakes/. This article provides an overview of deepfake technology covering topics such as what is it, how does it work, how to spot deepfakes and verifying information online.

Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist Colman Noctor offers advice for parents on talking to your child about online pornography.

How much time does the child spend on the Internet per week? In order for the child to control himself and learn to plan time he spends online and offline the worksheet ‘My screen time' will be useful for children of primary school age for keeping track of their screen time and online activities.

To encourage parents to keep close communication with child about their virtual life, it is important to find time to have conversations about safe and responsible use of the Internet. Often what parents think their child/teen is doing online is different from what the child is actually doing online. Therefore, conversations about their child’s virtual life will help parents better understand what they like to do online, as well as talk over the risks on the Internet so that he/she can protect himself.

Latvian SIC has developed a set of board games and activities in a printable format for children about internet safety inviting teachers, parents and families to play with children during summer camps and school brakes, also on weekends and within informal classroom events. Children can play games also with friends and classmates and learn online safety in a fun and engaging way.

Teachers and parents should print the games and organize competitions or wider activities between children at home or in classroom or during school lessons.

Online friendship or abuse? Innocent questions or attempted grooming?
A self-help test at sos.drossinternets.lv helps to recognize grooming on the internet. Children and young people, as well as parents and educators are invited to fill out the self-help test developed by experts from the Latvian Safer Internet Centre, the State Police and State Inspectorate for the Protection of Children's rights to test how safe the online friendship is, to learn how to recognize grooming cases and where to seek for a help.

Tool available in English at en.sos.drossinternets.lv

When a child is faced with a new situation or a painful, frightening experience, it may be timid to seek help by speaking, expressing their emotions and feelings. In the educational platform dedicated to self-education and self-help, children will be able to independently find information and advice prepared by professionals.

During our Safer Internet lessons in Lithuanian schools, we noticed that many children were playing the video game FIFA, so we decided to create a guide for parents and teachers to help them better understand the rules of the game, the threats and the tools they can use to control it.