A couple of days ago was the Internet safety day (or Safer Internet Day) I missed this (Cearta reminded me) and then did not have time to return to it until this morning. The purpose of the day is to promote safer and more responsible use of internet and mobile phone technologies. Cearta writes:
An excellent contribution to this issue is the ongoing EU Kids Online project at the LSE, funded by the EU’s Safer Internet plus Programme.
As the Irish contribution to Safer Internet Day, the Office for Internet Safety, the National Centre for Technology in Education, the National Parents Council (Primary), Childline, and the Hotline will host a joint Safer Internet Day event in Dublin to launch a TV and online awareness raising campaign focusing on the issue of cyberbullying.
Sweden has naturally also worked in this area too. Mediarådet has come out with reports such as Violence & Pornography in Video Games (in Swedish), IIS has a report on Young Peoples Integrity online (in Swedish), & Bris has Internet advice to parents (in Swedish).
All that can be said is that the fear and paranoia (or reality) of the Internet will provide a rich field of work for many people for a long long time – or is this too cynical?
Some interesting media reports on Internet Safety include: BBC | Guardian | Irish Times | Telegraph | Times Online | Silicon Republic | Sydney Morning Herald.