10 February 2020
Young people are being encouraged to use four tips to stay safe online, as part of a national campaign to promote safe and responsible use of technology.
Tomorrow is Safer Internet Day 2020, which is organised by UK Safer Internet Centre to provide advice on and support for online safety issues to children and young people, parents and carers, schools and people working with children.
Four tips for online safety include installing the latest updates to keep devices secure, using three random words to create strong passwords, considering what to share online and who can see it, and saving important information in more than one place.
The British and Irish Council (BIC), of which the Government of Jersey is one of eight member administrations, have this week shared a short online video with the four top tips for staying safe online, and parents are being encouraged to share the tips with their children.
The video, titled ‘Be Safe, Be Included, Be Connected’ was a focus for the BIC Digital Inclusion work sector, who met in Cardiff last week. Dave Roworth, from Skills Jersey, attended the meeting and hopes that the video and national campaign will help to promote the importance of being safe online.
“The patterns of online behaviours are evolving and changing at a rapid rate and we must continue to respond to these changes so that all individuals can be active online but safe when they are,” he said. “The latest OFCOM report shows that half of ten year olds now own their own smartphone while, in contrast, the 2019 lifestyle survey report shows that more than half of Jersey’s pensioners have no broadband connection at home.”
Mr Roworth added that there would be two further ‘top tip’ videos from the BIC later this year.
“We know that governments have to support both ends of the spectrum, keeping people safe online while reducing the numbers who do not have the skills or confidence to go online effectively. Our recent work has looked at the importance of helping every citizen to be included in what the internet can offer, and hopefully to thrive by being more easily connected to the key people and organisations in their lives”.
gov.je