How to stay safe online - World Safer Internet Day
By Anthony Harrison - 6 February 2023
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World Safer Internet Day is coming to town on the 7th of February. With its 20th anniversary this year, we want to take the time to highlight how important it is to talk to the younger generation about staying safe online. Kids and teens tend to be much more tech-savvy than their parents, we could easily be fooled into thinking they are aware of the potential dangers on the web. However, you’d be surprised to find out how many of them become the victims of scams, cyberbullying or worse.
What is Safer Internet Day?
Internet Safety Day aims to promote a more responsible use of technology by the young generations worldwide and raises awareness about the current threats online. For the year of 2023, the theme of Safer Internet Day is “Want to Talk About it?”
Why is it important?
We care about all internet users, respect their safety and would like to pass that knowledge on to you. Cyber safety is important not only on this day, but on any day throughout the year too. It is also significant to learn how to start a conversation about online safety with children and especially teenagers.
How and why was Safer Internet Day started?
The project dates back to 2004 as a part of the EU SafeBorders initiative, a year later it was then picked up by Insafe Network as part of their earliest actions towards cyber safety. Currently, Safer Internet Day is celebrated in 180 countries and territories worldwide.
How to celebrate Safer Internet Day?
Spark a conversation with children and teens about, consent cyberbullying and more
Let’s start with consent. You could define what it is in simple terms and give an example of a situation. For kids, you could describe a situation where a secret gets leaked outside of an agreed social circle. For teens, you may want to bring up how the use of private images shown to the person it was not meant for. Then you could explain that these sorts of actions can cause distress and usually lead to a feeling of abandonment and exclusion.
From that, you may want to lead the conversation into a cyberbullying topic, giving similar examples but developing the consequences: how a secret can hurt someone else or end up being the cause of bullying. In another case, the person whose private images got leaked gets bullied for taking them in the first place. You could highlight here that one should never send a private picture (featuring their face or showing nudity) to someone they do not trust or know. You can find more examples at Webwise: lockers.
Spread awareness and the importance of the day with other parents
It may be useful to host a parent's event (on or offline), presenting the idea of speaking with kids at school and home about the importance of staying safe online and practising ways to talk about it. Such events usually take place in public schools or libraries, you can find more info on the Webwise website, Yubo Website: more about safer internet day and the British Council website: helping teenagers stay safe online. There are plenty more resources available for educator facilities, so it may be worth asking at your local school and/or library.
In the so gentle period of transitioning from a child to a pre-teen and then a teen, we may not always think of the consequences of our actions, or we might not give our words too much thought before saying them. We have all been through it, but it is our duty as adults to help guide the young generation whenever they allow us. It is vital that your child or a younger family member is comfortable having this conversation with you. If you think they might not be, try to find a cause for that and/or ask someone you trust to have that conversation with them instead.
Let’s start with consent. You could define what it is in simple terms and give an example of a situation. For kids, you could describe a situation where a secret gets leaked outside of an agreed social circle. For teens, you may want to bring up how the use of private images shown to the person it was not meant for. Then you could explain that these sorts of actions can cause distress and usually lead to a feeling of abandonment and exclusion.
From that, you may want to lead the conversation into a cyberbullying topic, giving similar examples but developing the consequences: how a secret can hurt someone else or end up being the cause of bullying. In another case, the person whose private images got leaked gets bullied for taking them in the first place. You could highlight here that one should never send a private picture (featuring their face or showing nudity) to someone they do not trust or know.
Is World Safer Internet Day just for youngsters?
Absolutely not. It speaks of the importance of staying safe online for all ages, as everyone can draw important information from the resources available. University students also are under the radar of scammers, especially regarding finance. A few years ago, there was a significant problem, where UK universities with international students or home students taking the self-pay route, received emails claiming they are from the finance team asking them to pay for the year via a bank transfer because the usual paying link is broken. The bank transfer seemed real as well, having the university’s name on it too. The email disguised itself by misplacing the email name letter “e” with “c” which wouldn’t be visible right away (e.g.: ravc.co.uk instead of rave.co.uk). Not many people check the email address, and that was the scammer's advantage. So, there is no immunity to this other than staying aware and careful. This type of scam is not limited to educating facilities but can very well target small businesses and more.
How to stay safe online?
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The biggest giveaway of a scammer email is obvious grammar mistakes and strange wording, which could have been a result of an online translator. These people do not care for the quality of their message but rather how many people will buy into it. These scams take the route of emails, letters, SMS, and messaging platforms (WhatsApp, Telegram etc.). Another type of scam would be copy-cat websites that mimic the original website to the tiniest detail (e.g., Apple), expecting you to purchase their product but delivering you a completely different product, if any product at all. There are so many other elaborate scams out there, so we urge you to take the time to read up on them.
Keeping children safe online with parental controls
Parental controls can help prevent your children from seeing inappropriate or illegal content online, by:Limiting screen timeLimiting the amount of time your child spends at the screen is the most basic measure you can take to shield your child from seeing content that may harm them physically and mentally. Blocking specific devicesIf you have separate devices or accounts for children and parents, you may want to set up names for IP addresses to track it more easily, e.g., “Mom’s laptop”. If you only want your child to be using the internet to download updates, you can set this up in settings too. |
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Filtering web content
By setting up settings, you can make sure your child does not have access to specific web pages while using the home router and/or personal tech devices.
Even though your child may be shielded from unwanted content inside your home and school, there are still ways to access harmful resources online (for instance using a public network). This is why it is crucial to have open conversations on internet safety with the younger generation so that they are aware of threats even when they are surfing the web without parental controls.
How to set up parental controls?
Most routers will come with instructions on how to do this. For Linksys Mesh users, you can find these on your device (mobile, laptop, pc etc.) by going to MENU -> Settings -> Personalisation -> Parental Settings and Enter your PIN.
All your parental control options will be displayed.
You can find a handy list of definitions for each setting, here.
Please refer to the High Speed Internet Website for more information on parental controls, what they are and how they can be useful.
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