Safer Internet Day 2023

How to prepare for Safer Internet Day 2023

With remote and hybrid learning on the rise, Safer Internet Day couldn’t have come at a better time, since pupils may be at more risk of coming to harm with increased access to the internet. The question teachers often ask is how to prepare for Safer Internet Day, and luckily, here at Kapow Primary, we have plenty of resources to help ensure that your pupils stay safe online.

What is Safer Internet Day?

Safer Internet Day is a yearly event, with this year’s event taking place on Tuesday 7th February 2023.

Safer Internet Day started in 2004 and is now celebrated in over 200 countries worldwide, with a different theme each year. Every year, millions of school children all over the world take part, learning vital information about ways to stay safe online, and how to best manage their internet and screen use. The aim is to raise awareness of online issues and concerns, which will naturally change and evolve over time. This could include cyberbullying, digital footprints, social media use and more, with a general emphasis on making the internet a safer place for everyone.  

How can schools take part in Safer Internet Day?

There are lots of ways for schools to take part in Safer Internet Day, and activities should be tailored specifically to the needs of your children. If you’re aware that there have been incidents of cyberbullying then make that your focus, or if you know that children are playing and watching games that are not age-appropriate – then focus on that. There is no “one size fits all”, but here at Kapow Primary, we’ve got some useful resources and ideas for Safer Internet Day to make it fun, informative and beneficial for all – dip in and out, or use it all!

One of the most important things you can do is to simply open up conversations about online use, rather than telling children what they should and shouldn’t do – working together to make the internet a safer, kinder and better place for all. Doubtless, the internet is here to stay, and rather than ban children outright, we should teach them to use it with care, kindness and consideration.

For teachers, internet safety really should be a whole year thing, not a focus solely on Safer Internet Day, though there is no harm in having a big focus in one day, that involves the whole school community as a way of raising awareness that is carried through to the rest of the school year.  There are various supporting resources to help you on the Safer Internet Day website, as well as Internet Safety Lessons here at Kapow Primary. Here we will cover how best to use these lessons as part of Safer Internet Day, but also as part of your Computing curriculum in general.

Lesson ideas for being kind online

We have created a lesson called “Be Kind Online” to help children understand and learn about online behaviour and the effect that unkind words can have on others. Both children and adults are far more likely to say something unkind to someone online than they would in person, and so it’s important to have a discussion and role-play around this, to help bring online behaviour into context. Follow this with our Cyberbullying Lesson as a way to consolidate learning.

Other ideas for Safer Internet Day

It’s worth pointing out to children that not everything they read or hear online is true – and our Fake Emails Lesson is a useful way of exploring this.

You can also teach our Stay Safe Online Lesson to really explore what it means – in depth – to be safe online. There is also more information on the NSPCC website, including some useful and child-friendly videos.

Other lesson ideas for Safer Internet Day (these can be accessed via a free trial):

• Use our Inaccurate Information Online Lesson to help children learn that not everything we read online is necessarily true.
• Role-play a cyberbullying incident, including hot seating.  What does it feel like to the victim or perpetrator?  What leads people to act in that way?
• Watch the NSPCC video “I saw your Willy” and discuss how this helps us to understand online safety.
• Help children understand the positive and negative effects of the internet with our Life Online Lesson.
• Use the resources in our online safety toolkit below – including the KS1 and KS2 Safer Internet Day discussion prompts PowerPoints and worksheet.

You can also read our blog post to explore ways to teach online safety in primary schools.

Online safety toolkit

To help support teachers in helping to keep children safe online, we have created a FREE online safety toolkit for primary school teachers to use both on Safer Internet Day and more generally. Really, online safety should be an ongoing conversation that happens all year round – though obviously, it’s good to bring it to everyone’s attention in a larger way on Safer Internet Day.

Our FREE online safety toolkit contains:

• KS1 Safer Internet Day discussion prompts PowerPoint.
• KS2 Safer Internet Day discussion prompts PowerPoint.
• Safer Internet Day participation certificates.
• Online safety posters – for your computing suite or classroom.
• An online safety worksheet.
• Social media/digital safety suggestions for teachers.
• Digital rules for teachers in schools

Use this and the resources listed above to have the best Safer Internet Day ever!