Since 2005, the well-known International Safe Internet Day has been celebrated in a total of 100 countries around the world. It is a date that takes place every second Tuesday of the month of February and is celebrated with the purpose of raise awareness about user safety and the responsible, respectful and creative use of technology.
The security that the Internet provides to people who consume its content every day, whether through web pages or social networks, has been the subject of discussion by the main human rights defense organizations, especially when it comes to of the children’s audience.
Children and young people, being the most frequent audience on Internet pages, are the main focus of this day, which seeks to create an international movement that serves to raise awareness about the content that is shared on the Internetas well as its availability for the younger public.
What is the objective of International Safer Internet Day?
According to figures from the European INSAFE network, only on the European continent do children and adolescents spend an average of 8 hours a week playing on the Internetcausing them to sleep a total of 2 or 3 hours less a day, compared to the figures from 10 years ago.
In addition, the more than 600 million users who use the social network Facebook usually provide approximately 700 billion minutes per month to this social network, in which all types of content that may be unsafe for minors are shared.
These types of problems led, in 2004, to the European Union to propose celebrating the called Safer Internet Day, literally translated as Safer Internet Day, which was established within the SafeBorders project and was adopted by the INSAFE network, which since 2016 has promoted a safer Internet, called ‘Better Internet for Kids’.
Over time this day was adopted by more and more countries in the world, becoming International Safer Internet Day, a date that seeks to promote, debate and raise awareness about how important and necessary it is to make the Internet, a space that is much safer for childrengirls and adolescents from around the world.
The motto of International Safer Internet Day in 2022
Every year, within the framework of International Safer Internet Day, different types of events are celebrated around the world, with the purpose of promote responsible and safe use of the Internet for children and adolescents.
All these celebrations are held under a single motto that is established to draw the public’s attention to this important issue. In 2021, for example, the motto was “A better Internet starts with you: more connected, safer.”
This year, the theme for International Safer Internet Day is “Together for a better Internet”.
What kind of risks can children run on the Internet?
We know that the Internet is a place where all types of content can be shared that, since it is not properly suitable for a child audience, can become very harmful to boys and girls let them visit it.
Furthermore, today there are many minors who spend time on the Internet, whether doing schoolwork, researching a specific topic, or simply visiting social networks.
According to him United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), This is one of the most worrying problems, since most people think that these are only exceptional situations in which a minor may come across explicit or inappropriate content for their age, when the reality is that even in topics of interest children may contain harmful content.
UNICEF mentions the following cases as examples:
- They may find advice on false health remedies while studying for a science paper.
- They may find themselves involved in forums that promote hate speech and false narratives about a religion or ethnic group, when they become interested in a news story they have seen on TV.
- Their curiosity may lead them to content that encourages them to participate in illegal or harmful activities, including messages promoted by cults, criminal gangs, or armed terrorist groups.
- Searching for cartoons or games, you may come across adult content, such as pornography or online games.
Furthermore, it is important to mention the figures of the an organization that in 2021 registered the increased number of cases of child sexual abuse on the web, reporting a total of 252 thousand web pages in which multimedia content of minors being sexually abused was shared.
Is it then about limiting the Internet for children and adolescents?
According to UNICEF, the purpose of the fight for web security, promoted on International Safer Internet Day, It is not restricting the access of minors to networkssince this would be depriving them of a tool that can be extremely valuable for their development.
What is sought through this fight is to raise awareness and call for all types of measures to be adopted in different areas, in order to guarantee the safety of children and adolescents on the Internet.
One of the proposals of the Committee on the Rights of the Child is to make the main governments of each country require Internet provider companies to develop plans that allow children to enjoy a much healthier and more interesting contentprotecting them from material that could be harmful.
Let’s create together a safe network for children and adolescents
in the movement # We join the fight to make the Internet a space in which every boy or girl from anywhere in the world can access to enrich themselves with content that is safe, whether for educational or recreational purposes, without running any type of risk.
Remember that in # We are here to help you. Do you have any experiences of childhood sexual abuse that you would like to share? Break the silence now! and together let us fight for a safer world for boys and girls of all nationalities.