Safer Internet Day 2017 will take place on Tuesday 7th February with the theme ‘Be the change: Unite for a better internet’.
Celebrated globally and coordinated in the UK by the UK Safer Internet Centre the campaign sees hundreds of schools and organisations join together to raise awareness of online safety issues and run events and activities right across the UK.
As a result of this collective action Safer Internet Day 2016 reached 2.8 million UK children and 2.5 million UK parents.
With over 60% of 13-17 year olds now having social media accounts, it’s important that these can be used safely, here are our top tips:
- All social media accounts will allow you to block other users. If anyone makes you feel uncomfortable, use your block button!
- Make sure you report anyone who is abusive or inappropriate so they can be removed from the site.
- Comments left on your pages can always be deleted, don’t be afraid to remove something if you don’t want it there.
- Take a look at your privacy settings and take a close look at who can see what parts of your profile, these can be modified to keep your information as private as you like.
- If you see posts that might indicate to you that another person is in danger, make sure you report them and let someone know.
- Never share your personal details, such as your home address, telephone number or bank information.
- Do not let peer pressure or what other people are doing on these sites convince you to do something you are not comfortable with. Talk it through with a friend, parent, or teacher if you’re not sure.
- What goes online stays online. Do not say anything or publish pictures that might later cause you or someone else embarrassment.
- Whenever you’re about to post something online, pause and just imagine someone in authority, someone you respect, reading that post or looking at that photo. If that feels uncomfortable, don’t do it.
- Never share your passwords, you don’t want other people getting hold of your personal details or accounts. If you think your account has been hacked, then you can report this to the site.
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