Safer Internet Day gets a mixed response

Tuesday 09 February 2010 | By Heidi Scott, Gosh! Media Copywriter

Today is Safer Internet Day, an event aimed at promoting safe and responsible use of the Internet and mobile technologies among children and young people.

This year's main message is 'Think B4 U post!', which is laudable enough, although the Safer Internet Day site features a curious video of a computer mouse uploading partly pixelated pictures of itself – presumably naked – and the image being sent around the world with resounding laughter.

Held for the past four years on the second Tuesday of February, Safer Internet Day – or SID – is organised by Insafe, a European network of Internet awareness centres. Originally a European Union initiative, it has now spread across the world, with last year's SID marked by 500 events in 50 countries.

Writing on the Facebook Blog today, Will Gardner, CEO of Childnet International, says: "Safer Internet Day is an important event in the Internet safety calendar and provides a great opportunity to showcase some of the key messages about staying safe online. In this Web 2.0 world, where people have the ability to instantly communicate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it is more important than ever to think about your behaviour online to protect yourself and your friends, as well as for the good of the broader Internet community."

The message ties in with the government's 'Click Clever Click Safe' campaign, promoted by the UK Council for Child Internet Safety. Its latest slogan is the catchy 'Zip it, block it, flag it', urging kids to keep personal stuff private (zip it), freeze out people who send nasty messages (block it) and tell someone if anything on line is upsetting (flag it). Parents are being encouraged to use this simple code – based on the powerful Green Cross Code of the 1970s – when talking to their children about the Internet, in order to help keep them safe on line.

Under plans announced by Gordon Brown before Christmas, the 'Zip it, block it, flag it' message will be taught in every primary school in England from the age of five, with web safety skills becoming a compulsory part of the curriculum to help tackle the problems of cyber-bullying and on-line grooming.

CEOP – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre – is getting in on the act too. It's promoting a new animated film, Lee and Kim's Adventures, which aims to help children aged from 5 to 7 to stay safer on line. Research published last year by Ofcom suggests that a staggering 80% of this age group use the Internet.

CEOP has worked with Microsoft to add features to Internet Explorer 8 – mainly by installing a web slice, a feature that adds a button to the favourites bar and shows a panel of content that can be updated from the site. The ClickCEOP button provides links that children or parents can click for help with problems such as cyber-bullying and harmful content.

You may have guessed by now that there's a danger of this all-important safety message being lost in too many identities. A bit of joined-up government would not go amiss in this arena, Gosh! Media thinks.

In addition, many commentators think that the Internet safety message is being pitched at too young an age group. In his blog today on Telegraph.co.uk, media pundit Ian Douglas says of the 'Click Clever Click Safe' campaign, "There is some information for parents linked to from the campaign page, but the thrust of it is squarely towards the kids. Information for the children themselves is important, but the bulk of the effort should be going into informing the parents, not the under-11s."

This view is supported by the findings of the comprehensive 2008 report by clinical psychologist (and mother), Dr Tanya Byron, entitled 'Safer Children in a Digital World'. Like Douglas, many industry figures feel that the central message of the Byron Report – that parents should take more responsibility for their children's safety when using the Internet and mobile technologies – has been sadly overlooked by recent government measures.

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