Online safety concerns us all and schools throughout Hertfordshire are getting ready to highlight Safer Internet Day.

This year the focus is around the slogan ‘it’s more than a game, it’s your life’ -to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones.

In Hertfordshire the county council’s eSafety team has produced three videos to raise eSafety awareness among young people, teachers and parents. They include a Facebook Places warning on http://www.youtube.com/user/hertsict which alerts users to the implications of the new function and how to use it appropriately.

The team has also put together eSafety workshops and activity days. These range from short assemblies to class sessions and are aimed at primary and secondary pupils. Sessions for parents and teachers can also be arranged.

Councillor Allan Siao Ming Witherick said: “Like any tool, the internet can be a blessing and curse. You can waste hours surfing websites, or spend useful time researching for homework. But there are dangers as well.
If you got to some search engines you can find results (cached) for stuff that people have posted, and then deleted thinking it was gone forever…
So be careful what you post, especially when it comes to personal data.”

The web safety message is also spelt out on Channelmogo, a web portal for all young people in Hertfordshire. Log onto http://www.channelmogo.org/news/saferinterentday.htm

And Hertfordshire Youth Connexions staff are currently receiving training to run esafety sessions for the young people they work with in youth projects.

Safer Internet Day is organised by Insafe* and will be celebrated in more than 60 countries across the world. Thousands of activities will be organised by national Safer Internet Day committees to reflect on the way people present themselves on the web in spaces ranging from social networks and dating sites to online role-playing games such as Second Life and World of Warcraft.

*Insafe is a European network of awareness centres promoting safe, responsible use of the Internet and mobile devices to young people.