As the Internet and technology has become increasingly more accessible and interconnected, online safety concurrently has become more essential, especially for our children and young people. Safer Internet Day (SID) is a global campaign that started twelve years ago by the European Commission to promote a more responsible and safer online environment for young people. It is now celebrated globally in over 100 countries.
Each year hundreds of events are organized around the world to raise awareness on different topics relating to online safety, such as cyberbulling and social networking. This year, the campaign focuses on creating a ‘better internet together.’ We are all responsible – whether we are students, parents, educators, industry leaders, or lawmakers – to contributing to a better online environment. Safer Internet Day’s aim is “foster the positive and eliminate the negative online.”
On February 10th, this year’s Safer Internet Day, eleven Symantec volunteers joined together to deliver online safety workshops to students at two local Secondary Schools in England, the Piggottt School and the Highdown School. The combined efforts of the eleven volunteers equaled to 66 hours of volunteer time!
The students learned about a variety of online safety issues, such as password security, cyberbullying, social networking, and how people and companies can use your information. One of the students said, “I really enjoyed learning about possible situations and how to solve them.” The real life situations that the volunteers presented had a big impact on the students. Many of them cited these real life examples as the most informative aspect of the workshop. A survey revealed that most of the students learned something new, whether it was about online bullying or “the ten worst passwords,” they were all able to take something new away.
For one of the Symantec volunteers, the most rewarding part of the experience was “the immediate change in behaviour of the children we interacted with. [It] immediately raised awareness and confidence in the children we presented to [and there was] immediate action from the children. Children were reporting incidences to school staff before we had finished our presentations.”
Another volunteer said it was rewarding to see “the connection between Symantec’s mission, products and services and the positive impact to the community, especially with teenagers.”
The experience proved to be very rewarding and the volunteer time invested was well worth the sense of achievement. The Symantec volunteers felt that they benefited the local community by improving the confidence of the pupils. Both Symantec employees and the students learned from the experience.
Let’s create a better Internet together!
Published Mar 4, 2015 11am EST / 8am PST / 4pm GMT / 5pm CET
Sustainable Brands Staff