The internet contains information on nearly every topic that stands beneficial for students, teachers, and professionals. However, this technology has its downside effects as well. Some bullies and racists spread hate speech and shatter innocent youngsters.
To spread knowledge on the effects of misusing the internet and how one can responsibly use technology, Safer Internet Day was launched. This organization established an expert workshop in 2020 to discuss the potential of Artificial Intelligence against child abuse. Moreover, it has a leading history of encouraging people towards making a better online world.
To enlighten more on Safer Internet Day and its capable work, the article will discuss the following aspects:
Part 1: How Much Do You Know About Safer Internet Day?
Safer Internet Day promotes responsible and secure use of technology by children and youth of today's world. It has now become a landmark event with a history in the online safety calendar. Safer Internet Day was first started as an initiative of the EU SafeBorders project in 2004. Later, it was authorized by the Insafe network speedily in 2005.
Now, Safer Internet Day has emerged from its traditional geographic zone and is now embraced across 200 countries of the world. It considers cyberbullying and spreads awareness of emerging online issues and the importance of social networking.
1.1. Safer Internet Day Groups and Safer Internet Centres (SICs)
Different national centers run educational campaigns and awareness, facilitate helplines, and help youth to create a better internet with evidence and a remarkable approach. Insafe is a Europe-based network of Safer Internet Centres (SICs), but Safer Internet Day is now also celebrated outside Europe.
The main focus of Safer Internet Day committees was to create a strong bond with other countries and work in a group to promote campaigns worldwide. The Safer Internet Day Coordination team is located at the heart of the European Union in Brussels, and more than 100 global SID committees are working with the team.
1.2. February 6th – Celebration of Safer Internet Day
Safer Internet Day 2024 will take place on the 6th of February 2024. ‘Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence, and navigating change online’ will be the theme for the day to invite all the stakeholders and initiate the creation of a safer Internet for youngsters and children.
You can check social platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter profiles and review #SaferInternetDay to get most of the information regarding this topic. Whether you are a teacher, policymaker, parent, or policymaker, it doesn't matter. Every one of us must work for the betterment of the online world and help create effective opportunities for youth to grow.
Part 2: Why is Safer Internet Day Important?
We all believe that the Internet is a powerful technology. In 2022, the world has become a global village due to the Internet. It influences to bring positivity as well as harm into our lives. Now, different governments in the world are introducing Age-Appropriate Design Code in their laws to put forward the online privacy rights of children.
There are several online concerns, including misinformation, wrong information, explicit content, cybercrime, and hate speech, that have emerged in the past few years. Internet users get trapped in this dilemma: What do we have to consider correct and ignore on the Internet? If you know the answer to this question, you will easily make the most out of digital opportunities while staying away from the online chaos.
To protect children from hazardous outcomes of the internet, it is important to educate them on all the opportunities and danger the online world can bring upon them. This is the only way we can protect them, and Safer Internet Day is playing an important role in awareness and teaching youngsters about right and wrong.
Part 3: What You Could Do on the Safer Internet Day?
We have discussed the importance of Safer Internet Day and how it helps the young generation. Now, we will discuss the practices one can perform on the Safer Internet Day and how to recover your lost or deleted data due to virus attacks and errors.
3.1. Best Practices Recommended to the Readers on Safer Internet Day
Here, we will acknowledge the best activities that readers can adopt on Safer Internet Day and gain maximum knowledge on the hot topics.
1. Talk about the Importance of having Safe Online Communication
There will be people from different age groups in the session varying in maturity and awareness. However, an open discussion about safe online communication will help everybody gain mindfulness. You can share videos on different topics, like fighting patriarchy and responsible sharing of photos and conversations. The video will help in initiating the conversation so everybody in the conversation will share their opinions and ideas.
2. Have “The Smart Talk” with Norton LifeLock
February 12 will be the day to have Smart Talk on Norton LifeLock. The purpose of this session will be to create awareness regarding possible effective partnerships on a digital level. The students and their families will be able to set privacy boundaries on online platforms and learn how to gain respect by prioritizing their values.
3. Go for a National Interland Game Night
On February 10, there will be a Google presentation on "Gaming Safely." The meeting will teach you how to play games safely online. The National Interland Game Night has 4 phases. The first one gives the lesson to be kind in every aspect and how it is cool and appreciated to be positive. The next phase is called “Reality River," which teaches us not to fall for fake.
The third step teaches you not to overshare and be mindful of opening up online, while the last one delivers the importance of securing your secrets to yourself.
4. Attending the Digital Kindness Seminar on National PTA Zoom Meeting
National PTA will have a healthy conversation with families about digital kindness on February 9. This day, families will share their real-life experiences with online elimination, blackmailing, bullying, and racism. They will elaborate on the initial pattern they have gone through and how they emerge from that situation.
This way, the young individuals who might be facing any disastrous situation online will get experienced advice on how they should tackle their situation. Such experiences and advice from the families will help the children be kind to everybody and not digitally mock or bully anyone.
5. Learn from ConnectSafely
ConnectSafely will deliver a series on "Industry Insight" on February 8 to inform what policymakers and tech companies are doing to keep the online environment safe. It would emphasize children to have confidence in the policies and companies of their countries and have a healthy discussion on main topics after watching the videos.
3.2. Possible Causes of Data Loss Due to Unsafe Internet
Different malware and viruses can enter your device and corrupt your data resulting in the malfunctioning of your company. Moreover, hacking and data breaches are real things. Hackers can steal your data, delete it, or misuse it, causing you sufficient loss. Moreover, there can be a human error resulting in the deletion of your important data files.
Your device's hard drive might be affected due to the spillage of any liquid on it. Whatever the reason is, it can cause you data loss that can bring major inconvenience in your personal and professional life.
If you have gone through important data loss and want to recover the important files, Wondershare Recoverit can be your rescue tool. Recoverit enables you to recover lost or deleted videos, photos, email documents, and files for free. You can also recover data from your USB drives, SD cards, and hard drives.
This recovery tool helps in recovering data from damaged and RAW partitions easily. Recoverit allows you to preview your pictures, documents, and music to make sure the data is intact. This recovery tool is available for both Windows and macOS users.
Part 4: Tips to Create a Better Internet Environment for You
Unsafe surfing can lead you to various major threats. We need to learn and evolve as a society and create a better internet environment. The struggle starts from within yourself. Therefore, we will provide you with important tips that can help you be mature and conscious digitally.
1. Put Limited Personal Information Out There
It is not necessary to publicize your home address and relationship status for unknowns on social platforms. On professional platforms, people only need to know your professional background and way to stay in touch with you. Therefore, you shouldn't hand out your personal information to strangers online.
2. Browse Safely
Cybercriminal’s use engaging and catchy content to attract people to their sites. Once you click on it, your data will be exposed to those cybercriminals, and it will also infect your device. If you resist your urge to click on tempting sites, hackers will not get a single chance.
3. Practice Safe Shopping
When we shop online, we often input our financial information or visit websites for sensitive transactions. Before giving in your credit card details, double-check the site's address. The address should always start with "HTTPS," which indicates that the site is secure.
4. Enhance your Network Security
When you are at home or office, the router probably is password-protected, which encrypts your information. However, when you are on the road, your phone might catch the signals of free, public Wi-Fi.
Such connections are insecure, and hackers can easily access your information via public Wi-Fi. Therefore, you should invest in a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that establishes a secure connection on the internet.
5. Choose Strong Passwords
The whole Internet security structure will collapse if your chosen password is not strong enough. Avoid using simple and common passwords like "123456”. Select a strong password having at least 15 characters mixed with upper case letters, lower case letters, and special characters.
Wrapping Up
A light discussion on major topics like cyberbullying, blackmailing, and hacking would serve no good to our generation. Therefore, Safer Internet Day is a platform that works as a source of open communication for children and their families. One can learn from the conversation and achieve full awareness of online matters. The article has discussed the importance of Safer Internet Day and essential tips to avoid unhealthy situations online.
