Today is Safer Internet day
Posted Feb 8, 2011 08:10:37 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Today is Safer Internet day – a global event designed to bring awareness about online risks and encourage a safer Internet environment for everywhere.
Canada is one of about 70 countries around the world marking the day, which was started in 2004 in the European Union.
In recognition of the event, the Ontario Provincial Police are urging parents to talk with their kids about the risks that come with being online.
The OPP’s Online Risk Coordinator Monica Cachagee says that while the Internet may be known as the “world wide web”, both parents and kids don’t seem to really grasp that whatever you put online is accessible to anyone in the entire world – and it can’t be truly deleted.
“You might be able to delete a few of your photo, but if someone else has grabbed them, or shared or re-tweeted one of your comments, they can reappear. Our youth and our parents don’t realize the permanence of what they’re putting on there. Whether its pictures, video or comments, which sometimes leads to cyber bullying.”
Cachagee says parents make an effort to become as computer savvy as possible, and make an effort to get to know their kids’ online friends, just as they would their friends in real life.
