Happy Safer Internet Day

Tuesday, 6 February 2018 is Safer Internet Day. This year's theme is "Create, connect and share respect: A better internet starts with you".

At SchoolNet SA we encourage teachers to create communities of digital learners, but we also want to ensure that teachers and learners are safe online. We encourage teachers to play their part in creating a better internet for everyone, especially learners.

At the 2017 SchoolNet SA ICT in the Classroom Conference, Omashani Naidoo presented a session on "Cyber Wellness and Digital Citizenship". In this presentation Omashani stressed that individuals are their own biggest threat on the web and challenged the audience to Google themselves and to see what came up. She advised that before posting anything you should ask yourself "Is this something I can show my parents or my Gogo or my Principal?".

Here is some guidance for keeping yourself safe online. Ensure you don't do any of these things:

• Don’t publish information that identifies you 
• Don’t upload inappropriate photos/videos 
• Don’t use inappropriate language 
• Don’t make online presence all about you 
• Don’t mix wall posts and personal messages

And that instead you adopt these practices:

• Choose sensible, strong, hard-to-guess passwords 
• Know the privacy settings on social media 
• Be selective when adding friends- accept only people you know 
• Stop and think before you click 
• Use fully protected devices

This #SaferInternetDay let's think about how we can join in online discussions and professional development opportunities whilst ensuring a better and safer digital experience.