Being Safe Online

96% of young people in the UK regularly use the internet to communicate according to a survey of 24,000 British people aged 9-11. A report shows that only 40% of young people know that personal information shared online stays online forever. There are about 250 million tweets generated every day and around 800 million Facebook users - that means a lot of information is shared online. So are young people using the internet safely?

1. Be nice! Treat people online as you do in real life.

2. Don’t post anything online that you wouldn’t want people in real life to see.

3. Check your privacy and security settings on social media sites and keep them as private as possible. Make sure you know exactly who can see your posts.

4. Don’t ever post personal information like your home address, your email or your phone number.

5. If you see something online that worries or upsets you, tell an adult about it straight away.

Private or public

Do you know how to change your privacy settings on social media? For example, you can click on the ‘flower’ icon or on ‘settings’ on Facebook to get to your privacy settings. Then you can decide who sees your posts and personal information: friends, friends of friends or everyone. Do you want everyone in the world to be able to see your email address or just friends?

Safer Internet Day

Safer Internet Day, or SID for short, tries to help people to use the internet correctly. SID started in 2004 and is organised in February every year in 74 countries around the world to promote safe and responsible use of online technology and mobile phones. Each year there is a different topic such as cyberbullying or social networking. The focus for SID’s next campaign is “Let’s create a better internet together”. SID organisers want children and young people, parents and carers, teachers and educators, as well as industry and politicians to work together to build a better internet for all of us, but particularly for children and young people.

● Don't give out personal information such as your address or phone number.

● Don’t send pictures of yourself to anyone, especially indecent pictures.

● Don't open emails or attachments from people you don't know.

● Don't become online ‘friends’ with people you don't know.

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