Students from 19 West Midlands colleges are joining forces to get behind Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 8th February 2022
Online Safety is in focus for college students across the West Midlands.
The safety of students is a concern shared by all further education colleges across the West Midlands. As members of Colleges West Midlands, colleges collaborate in taking an active stance to keep students across the region safe and well.
Safer Internet Day is a celebrated around the world in February each year to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology for children and young people, whether that is when they are learning online, working online, playing games, creating content, or interacting with their friends and peers.
The event calls on young people, parents, carers, teachers, social workers, law enforcement, companies, policymakers and more, to join together in helping to create a better internet and to inspire a national conversation about using technology responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively.
This year’s Safer Internet Day is on 8 February 2022, focusing with the theme: All Fun and Games? Exploring Respect and Relationships Online. Acting collectively, West Midlands colleges are taking this opportunity to throw a spotlight onto online safety, a highly relevant issue for students, as digital communication becomes an increasingly important mode of learning and communicating for young people.
‘We recognise the huge and growing reliance we all have on the internet, not just for learning and work, but for social activity. Although the digital world can be a positive environment for online learning and keeping connected, it also presents risks to young people’s safety and wellbeing around fraud, unhealthy relationships and damage to reputation, to name a few. We are committed to educating students in our region about healthy and positive online behaviours and we are delighted to rally around in support this global initiative, Safer Internet Day 2022.’ Lowell Williams, Chair Colleges West Midlands.
On 8 February, students representing 19 colleges across the West Midlands will participate in day-long inter-college online forum with guest speakers leading on topics such as Extremism Online, Gambling Online, Healthy Relationships Online, Exploitation Online, Online Behaviour from an Employer Perspective.
In addition, colleges across the region will be holding local workshops and tutorials and running events and information campaigns.