The Childnet Digital Champions are Jess, Bella, Maryam, Niah, Oyinkan, Cosima and Aimee. They are a group of Digital Leaders from across the country who were successful in applying to be ambassadors of the Digital Leaders Programme, representing the Digital Leader community and supporting the Childnet team. The Digital Champions had their kick-off day on 23rd January at Facebook offices and the day was a chance for the young people to get to know each other, find out what to expect in their role as a Digital Champion and lots more!
Here is part two of two blog posts written by the Digital Champions which explains what they got up to on the kick-off day and what to expect from them in the coming months. Hear from Aimee and Maryam in this blog post and look back at part one to hear from the other Digital Champions.
How did we become Digital Champions?
Aimee: We all had heard about the opportunity from various places, I received an email about it but I know it was also in the newsletters as well. We first did a survey answering questions about our involvement with the Digital Leaders Programme, our aspirations and our inspirations. Not long after we were chosen for interviews where we answered a few more questions about us as well as what parts of the Digital Leaders Programme we wanted to improve and finished with an activity where we had to plan a Safer Internet Day workshop. At the end of this, the successful applicants all received emails saying we had become Digital Champions which was incredibly exciting! Personally I found the process really fun and I would recommend every interested Digital Leader should try it next time.
What are you going to do as a Digital Champion in your school?
Maryam: As a Digital Champion in my school, I think what’s mainly important for us right now is settling the new students and new Digital Leaders into what the role entails. We aren’t only trying to combat internet safety, but internet equality – after all, it is a basic human right and is something that we all deserve, regardless of being offline or online. Currently my school are developing a scheme trying to combat this and spreading the message to our Year 7s and other younger years. Our inspiration mainly stemmed from not only my original goal as a Digital Champion – which was wanting a more positive internet, but what I heard from the other Digital Champions during the kick-off day. Their ideas of equality really struck something in me and has given me the courage to share it with my school. This is an on-going project and I hope that we are able to not only represent this for Safer Internet Day, but for all of our time at school.
Welcome to the April post of our monthly achievements and updates blog. Here we congratulate schools who have completed their training over the past month and share good news stories from Digital Leader schools.
Covid-19 school closures
We are excited to see what Digital Leaders achieve in these different circumstances, while they will be spending more time at home and more time online.
Secondary Digital Leaders are encouraged to continue using the online training platform remotely, completing the modules and engaging in the other areas of the programme like the community and the peer leadership aspect of the programme, sharing what they have learnt with family and friends, either online or offline.
Primary Digital Leaders cannot access the platform without their teacher present however this is a great opportunity for them to be creative in sharing their online safety messages! Every week we will be sending Primary Digital Leader teachers suggested activities that their Digital Leaders can complete at home.
Please keep us up to date at [email protected] with what your Digital Leaders are working on from home and what they achieve! We will feature any work or reports about activities that Digital Leaders have been doing in this blog.
Sabeeka’s fantastic poster with an important message
Sabeeka, one of the brilliant Digital Leaders from Swaffield School created a poster to share important advice about how to keep safe online. Thank you so much Sabeeka for sharing your poster with us, we think it’s brilliant and love the colours as well as the messages! The poster includes really important tips for keeping your private information safe and reminds everyone to ask an adult before sharing any personal information online. Great advice, Sabeeka! We think you should tell an adult if you see anything that you are not sure about online.
You can now find out more about the team behind the Digital Leaders Programme! Take look here, to read up on how each of us found ourselves in the Childnet team, working on the Digital Leaders Programme and what we do.
Well done to the Digital Leader teams from the following schools who have recently completed their online training!
Abbey Primary School, Northampton – 3rd cohort!
Barley Close Community Primary School
Bromley High School Junior – 3rd cohort!
Gayhurst School – 2nd cohort!
Guildford High School- Junior
Holtsmere End Junior School – 4th cohort!
International School of the Hague Primary – 2nd cohort!
One of our Digital Champions, Jess from Selston High School, was invited to attend the Safer Internet Forum in Brussels on 21st November 2019. Jess was selected to represent the UK within the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Youth Panel, made up of around 25 young people from across Europe.
We asked Jess to tell us about her experience at the Safer Internet Forum. She provided us with a report detailing how she collaborated with young people from other countries and how she found the whole experience. Read Jess’ report below:
“The Safer Internet Forum is an event held annually to spread the word about positive Internet use and bring people together to share their views on different topics surrounding the online world. In 2019, I was chosen to represent the UK and speak as part of the BIK Youth Panel to help make a change for young people online, with the Safer Internet Forum being a way to express our views and take a stand for youth online.
Due to our limited time in Brussels, we needed to come up with ideas and ways to kick-start our campaign before reaching the conference itself. This was done through various web conferences, starting a couple of months before we were due to arrive. These online meetings helped us put together ideas, get to know each other more and ultimately prepare for the event properly. Lots of brilliant ideas were thrown around in these meetings about how we can spread our message, both online and offline, and how we can kick-start our campaign. In the end, we chose to go with an Instagram account, informing and helping young people to use the Internet positively and responsibly. You can find us at @bik.youthforyouth.
During my time at the Safer Internet Forum in Brussels, Belgium, I took part in lots of different activities and helped to prepare for our session within the Forum itself. Not only did we hold many discussions on important topics facing today’s youth online, but we also covered less talked-about topics such as helplines and misogyny in gaming. These activities helped is build skills in communication, teamwork and organisation. We also planned our session for the forum itself and discussed many things such as the survey we ran, how to present our Instagram account and speeches we would perform in our session.
Of course the forum itself was an incredible experience, however the other young people I met whilst there really was the highlight of my trip. Seeing how the Internet can bring a group of young people together from all across Europe really highlighted why I believe the online world is such an amazing place to be. After weeks of chatting with each other online, we finally all got to meet face-to-face and share our message to a wider audience. Everyone was so kind and supportive, it really was an experience I’ll never forget.
After attending the Safer Internet Forum, I learnt not only so much more about online safety, but also more about the power of the Internet; how it can bring people together, to share a universal message and help change young people’s lives online for the better. There is so much negativity in the media surrounding the online space, however this experience taught me that no matter where you are in the world, the Internet can unite us all and bring us together as one amazing, supportive community full of people just like you and me, and bring about a change online.
This experience has changed my life, and without the Internet, I never would have met such awe-inspiring people who are helping to make the Internet a better place for people like you and me. “
Thank you Jess for being an excellent representative for young people across the UK and ensuring that youth voice is heard. Find out more about our Digital Champions here and take a look at their plans for the year ahead as well as more information about their role within the programme here.
The theme of Safer Internet Day in the UK this year looked at identity online and how young people manage, curate and navigate their online identity. Digital Leaders from five schools, a mixture of primary and secondary, attended the Safer Internet Day event at the BT Centre in London on 11th February.
Guests from the internet industry as well as services which support young people, government and policy attended the event which was organised by the UK Safer Internet Centre and hosted by Homyra, a Digital Leader from Mayfield School.
Digital Leader teams from Coopers School, Harris Academy Tottenham, Leigh Academy Blackheath, Stanburn Primary School and Woodcote Primary School attended and prepared and led activities around the theme of identity online for the guests, to encourage them to think about what this means to young people and whether everyone is free to be themselves online.
Digital Champions, Aimee and Cosima, were also in attendance to talk to guests about the Young People’s Charter. Take a look at our blog post about the Young People’s Charter and Digital Leaders’ involvement in the development of the charter here.
Young people give their thoughts on online safety
Homyra kicked off the event in the auditorium by welcoming everybody and introducing speeches from Marc Allera, CEO of Consumer Goods at BT, who spoke about how proud he was to host the event at the BT Centre as well as Will Gardner, CEO of Childnet and Director of the UK Safer Internet Centre. Will spoke about how important Safer Internet Day is, and how it can be used to to start conversations around young peoples’ lives online and talked about the breadth of activities that young people across the UK were doing to celebrate the day.
Will presented the Safer Internet Day research report, ‘Free To Be Me: piecing together identity online’ which looks at how young people manage, curate and navigate their online identity and highlighted the key findings from the research to the guests.
Aimee then delivered the youth keynote speech. She spoke about why she wanted to become a Digital Leader, what her new role as a Digital Champion involved as well as the importance of the theme of exploring online identity.
After the speeches, the guests were invited to take part in the Digital Leader led activities. Activities included drawing your own avatar to display your online persona, thinking about which scenarios are more likely to happen offline or online and looking at the things you do online that make up your online identity.
Guests received stickers for visiting each activity station. Aimee and Cosima also ran an activity which involved explaining the Young People’s Charter and asking the guests to make pledges in how they are going to champion the charter. Take a look at our blog post about the Young People’s Charter here.
Everyone then returned to the auditorium again for the final part of the event. This session involved a panel hosted by Natasha Devon MBE with panellists from a variety of organisations which support young people, such as The Mix, Girlguiding and Glitch. The Digital Leaders in attendance had prepared questions for the panel around the theme of how young people manage their online identities and what support there is for young people in managing their online lives. This created some great discussions among the panel.
The day was a huge success and we were so pleased to have so many Digital Leaders in attendance to lead the event and represent the entire Digital Leaders community. Thank you to the Digital Leaders who attended as well as their teachers and chaperones who supported their pupils on the day. Thank you also to the Digital Champions, Aimee and Cosima, for attending and speaking passionately about the Young People’s Charter, and to Aimee for her impressive key note speech. Thank you also to Homyra for being an excellent youth host, welcoming guests to the event and introducing speakers to the stage. All of the Digital Leaders in attendance were fantastic in their roles on the day.
Take a look at the Safer Internet Day research report here. And the Young People’s Charter here.
Make sure to let us know what you did to celebrate Safer Internet Day in your school by emailing [email protected], so that we can include your activities in a Safer Internet Day roundup blog post!
Siobhán and Fabian from the Childnet Digital Leaders team recently visited the Barnfield Primary Digital Leaders. They were very impressed with what the team have already achieved in school as well as their plans for the next few months!
The team have completed the core training modules and have also run assemblies in school for Anti-Bullying Week and Safer Internet Day. The assemblies were such a success that after watching them other pupils wanted to become Digital Leaders too! We want to say well done to the Barnfield Digital Leaders for making such a big impact in their school already. No doubt that the team will make an even bigger impact in the next few months as they have impressive plans to share their online safety knowledge and support pupils in their school to keep safe online.
The team’s plans include writing for the school newsletter and running a school poster-making competition. We think these are fantastic ways to get their online safety messages out to the whole school and to encourage pupils to think creatively!
Whilst visiting them the Barnfield Primary Digital Leaders also shared their top online safety tips with us. These included:
Don’t share your personal information
If you receive nasty messages, you don’t need to reply
Always tell an adult when in doubt
Be careful who you talk to online
Be kind online
We had a great time visiting the Barnfield Primary Digital Leaders and talking to them about their role as Digital Leaders in school. Thank you to Ms Vessey and the fantastic Digital Leaders for welcoming us to your school. Good luck and keep us updated with what you achieve!
If your Digital Leaders would like a school visit from the Childnet Digital Leaders team, then please get in touch at [email protected].
Make sure to keep us up to date with what your Digital Leaders achieve in school by emailing [email protected] and tweeting @ChildnetDL.
This blog looks at the Digital Leaders’ involvement in the Young People’s Charter for Safer Internet Day 2020.
In consultation with young people across the UK, the UK Safer Internet Centre produced the Young People’s Charter for Safer Internet Day 2020. The Charter calls upon the government and internet industry to make a more inclusive internet where everyone is #freetobe themselves.
41 Digital Leaders contributed to this charter, alongside other young people across the UK, through an online survey. Our Digital Champions fed into the charter through consultation, helping to shape the charter’s four key points which highlight the demands that young people need government to act upon to keep them safe and free to be themselves online.
Aimee and Cosima, two of the Childnet Digital Champions, were involved in the development of the charter. They then presented the charter to MPs at Westminster and then to industry at the Safer Internet Day event in London.
Take a look at the full charter here for more depth around the four calls to action.
The Young People’s Charter includes:
Provide good quality education about the internet
Protect equal rights and opportunities online and offline
Establish better protection and accountability
Give us the space and power to create change
The Young People’s Charter launch in parliament on Safer Internet Day 2020
Aimee and Cosima, two of the Digital Champions launched the charter by presenting it to MPs at parliament on Safer Internet Day. They spoke directly to over 25 MPs, explaining the purpose and importance of the clear demands included in the charter. They also explained how the charter was developed by the UK Safer Internet Centre with young people. The charter comes from the young people that the UK Safer Internet Centre spoke to.
Aimee and Cosima then attended the Safer Internet Day event where they presented the charter to guests from the internet industry and asked guests to pledge to play their part to support young people online and to champion the Young People’s Charter.
Photo: Baroness Nicky Morgan,Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, gives her support for the Youth Charter
The Safer Internet Day 2020 research report which influenced and accompanies the Young People’s Charter can be found here.
Tuesday 11th February saw the celebration of Safer Internet Day across the world in over 170 countries. The theme of this year’s campaign in the UK was ‘Free to be me: Exploring identity online’, encouraging young people to explore how they manage their online identity, and how the internet shapes how they think of themselves and others.
We asked Bella, one of our Digital Champions, a few questions around the theme and she provided some enlightening and insightful responses which you can find below.
1) Why is it important for all young people to be free to be themselves online?
“For many young people, particularly as the generational divide between our and our parents’ generations widens, access to the internet can equal a person’s access to certain safe spaces that they would not be able to access ‘in real life’. This means something, and whether or not a person feels comfortable in a certain community online should be the qualifier for it allowing young people to ‘be themselves’. These spaces should be commended for accommodating people regardless of race, sexuality etc.”
2) Why is it important to have different groups represented online? Why is online representation important?
“The intense diversity of some sites, such as Tumblr and Instagram, really helps to confront and challenge people’s opinions and understandings of the world where in their current situation offline they may not be. Issues that do not pertain to certain people are still raised by others online, and therefore those people learn something valuable about the struggles and the successes of other communities – and therefore the importance for diversity and the concept of ‘free and equal’ online. Representation online is so critical in my own experience because LGBTQ+ folks in my area are not so common publicly – to be presented with people that are ‘like you’ online, regardless of what that means to an individual, provides a critically important sense of validation and strips away the isolation many feel in their offline situations. This is why visible and healthy representation must be paramount.”
3) What is the best thing about diversity online? What is the worst thing about diversity online?
“The best thing (for me personally): the communities that form around aspects of diversity, particularly when those aspects are not universally or widely celebrated offline. The internet is so critical for providing (particularly) young people with a set of others like them whom they can communicate with and share their experiences with, and anonymously, if need be. These communities build up a validating sense of self worth for those who might otherwise be lacking it.
The worst thing (for me personally): In the quest for diversity, which, today, particularly with regard to sexuality, tends to produce more views/clicks, things like ‘queer-baiting’ have come into existence, whereby shows etc. falsely advertise inclusion and tolerance in order to draw in a subset of the population interested by this. The use of diversity as a weak and commercial factor in media is increasingly becoming a problem; I believe distinctions should be made for showwriters and media executives between healthy and unhealthy representation in order to bate this problem in the future.”
4) What is your one wish for the future of the internet?
“I hope we are able to overcome this idea that hate speech is a quality that should not be dismantled online because of the policy of freedom of speech. I’m aware that a number of social media sites (i.e. Twitter) have removed a considerable amount of ‘hate speech’ content under cyber-laws and legislation, and have received criticism from radical communities which resent the idea of restriction of certain materials – and while freedom of speech in a political sense is incredibly important, I believe that comfortable diversity for the large majority cannot be achieved until hate speech and free speech are separated properly by legislation and social media policy.”
5) If you could tell parents, teachers, and the internet industry one thing about online identity, what would it be?
“It is so important to encourage children and young people to develop a healthy online presence early, and, perhaps even more so, to put forward a level of trust in letting them do this. ‘Watcher’ apps are increasingly popular and they should not be underestimated in the sense that they do make online identity a more restricted concept if people feel as though they cannot express themselves, and in some cases, this is damaging to a person’s ability to socialise. Children and young people might misrepresent themselves a little bit online, but it is critical that ‘healthy identity’ is promoted and taught; that is, cultivating an image that you feel comfortable with, while also understanding there are limits.”
Thank you, Bella, for your passion for this topic and for being so open with your thoughts. Find out more about our Digital Champions here and take a look at their plans for the year ahead as well as more information about their role within the programme here.
The Childnet Digital Champions are Jess, Bella, Maryam, Niah, Oyinkan, Cosima and Aimee. They are a group of Digital Leaders from across the country who were successful in applying to be ambassadors of the Digital Leaders Programme, representing the Digital Leader community and supporting the Childnet team. Find out more about our fantastic Digital Champions here. The Digital Champions had their kick-off day on 23rd January at Facebook offices and the day was a chance for the young people to get to know each other, find out what to expect in their role as a Digital Champion and lots more!
Here is part one of two blog posts written by the Digital Champions which explains what they got up to on the kick-off day and what to expect from them in the coming months. Hear from Cosima, Jess, Niah and Bella in this blog post and hear more from our other Digital Champions in part two.
What did we get up to on our kick-off day?
Cosima: We all arrived at Facebook, signed in and waited to be taken in, it was the first time that all of the new Digital Champions met and it was so nice to finally see each other face to face! We went upstairs to a room on the 8th floor, there were loads of snacks and drinks which they said we could have. After we all introduced ourselves; new and existing, and the Childnet team told us a little about themselves too we decided to play some icebreakers. I’m sure that I speak for all of us in that after we made recipes from our favourite foods and scattergories we felt like we had been friends for ages! Some time and snacks later, the existing DC’s told us a little more about their experiences and highlights of the role and what kind of things to expect. We then were given an amazing tour of the Facebook offices. They had a giant phone, Instagram carriage, pick and mix, emoji game, work pods and much more. We were all thinking how if we worked there we would never get any work done as there are too many cool things to do! Once again we collected some snacks and drinks and then went back to our room! The Childnet team talked to us about upcoming events and tasks and then it was time for lunch, the best part! During and after lunch we talked some more (like a lot!) and set in stone the expectations and requirements for our time as Digital Champions and we talked to by another member of the Childnet team who asked us for our views on some pretty cool things. After a long, packed and fun day we said our goodbyes and took a trip to the pick and mix! It was a really great and enjoyable day that we won’t be forgetting in a hurry.
What are the team of Digital Champions going to do?
Jess: As a team of Digital Champions, we want to speak as the youth and for the youth. We are all from so many different backgrounds, and we can harness this diversity to speak out about issues facing young people online in our area and come together to voice our peers’ opinions. The Digital Champion team and I are ready to make young people’s voices heard and speak out for our internet!
Which part of being a Digital Champion are you most looking forward to?
Niah: The part of being a Digital Champion I am looking forward to the most is having the opportunity to support young people in making positive decisions online outside of my school community, as well as working with young people from all different backgrounds to take on Digital Leader roles and positively grow the online space.
For some of the Digital Champions this is your second year in the role. What advice would you give to the new Digital Champions?
Bella: To the new Digital Champions, I’d definitely say to twist your role in your school and on a local level especially into something you can harness to pursue relevant things you’re interested in seeing improve in your local area. For instance, my Digital Leaders and I have done a lot on safety for the LGBTQ+ community online, because we’re mostly involved in the GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance) here at my school. If you choose a ‘specialty’ you’re super invested in, it will pronounce you as a seriously capable young leader and it’ll give you the confidence you need to approach a leadership role. That’s how it’s been in my experience.
Charlotte and Marie from the Childnet team had a fantastic visit to the Digital Leaders at Penwortham Primary School on 17th January 2019. The Digital Leaders told us how they have been completing the training modules whilst planning lots of exciting projects for the future! They also wrote an article for their school newspaper, ‘The Globe.’
See their article below to read about their role as Digital Leaders and find out what their aims as a team are:
Thanks to Penwortham Primary School for sharing your fantastic newspaper article, it is great to see such an informative article by the Digital Leaders. The Childnet team really enjoyed meeting the Digital Leaders and we can’t wait to see what else they achieve in their roles.
If your Digital Leaders would like a school visit from the Childnet Digital Leaders team, then please get in touch at [email protected].
Make sure to keep us updated with what your Digital Leaders achieve in school by emailing [email protected] and tweeting @ChildnetDL.
The Childnet Digital Leaders Community is an online space hosted on the Childnet Digital Leaders Platform, where Digital Leaders from around the UK can connect with each other to share ideas, advice and tips, ask questions or join our discussion topics about key issues and latest trends.
In this blog post, we will reflect on some of the exciting conversations that have happened in the Childnet Digital Leaders Community since the start of term in September.
Community Prize Posts
In the first week of term, we launched our new ‘Community Prize Posts’ where secondary aged Digital Leaders who respond are in with a chance of winning a prize! Four months on, we’ve had some really exceptional and thought-provoking responses and we’ve sent out prizes to five amazing Digital Leaders.
One of our earliest prize posts led to a fantastic debate about the popular app, TikTok:
“I actually have Tik Tok myself and it’s really fun. The posts on there always make me laugh, and it’s such a big community that everyone seems to come together.” Secondary Digital Leader
“I think Tik Tok is a bad app to have as there are a lot of people that you dont know that can comment on your posts and maybe harass you. It can make some people laugh and some people may think its fun. But it can really hurt peoples feelings.“ Secondary Digital Leader
We’ve also heard some really interesting perspectives on topics like online activism, fake news and digital detoxes:
“I think online activism is a slightly useless act, because you’re just saying, not doing, and the point of activism is to make a change and make people listen, so just saying something online won’t do that. I think it works well only to back up/support and increase views on a campaign.” Secondary Digital Leader
“I’ve seen a great campaign for a cause online. The #ENDviolence project with UNICEF by a Korean boyband BTS, empowered a phrase, “Love Yourself.” This is to call out everyone especially teens to know & understand themselves.” Secondary Digital Leader
“Social media companies should have a team of “investigators” to take down any fake news and remind people online that it was fake news.” Secondary Digital Leader
“Individuals could help combat the spread of fake news by reporting it or standing up to it. I think the best way for an individual to help would be reporting it though. Simply press the report button that differs depending on what platform you use, but it is usually a triangle, explanation mark or three dots. ” Secondary Digital Leader
The Community Prize Posts will continue throughout 2020 so look out for future round ups, and chances for your Digital Leaders to get engaged in the discussions!
Of course, it isn’t just the Community Prize Posts starting conversations. Well done to the following Digital Leaders for starting some of the most popular conversation threads last term:
Arnas B and Stuart B who both asked about age verification online.
Lauren P who wanted to know what Digital Leaders think are the top ten most common online dangers.
Ubayd S who started lots of conversations about the positive and negative impacts of gaming.
And Abdulla M who was interested in what users can do to counter fake social media accounts.
Finally we have had some exciting opportunities for Digital Leaders to contribute to discussion threads on the community which have helped inform Childnet staff and shape the work we do in the wider online safety space. For example we had some really insightful comments from Digital Leaders about expiring content. These comments, along with further research we have been conducting in this area, will make up a final report to be published in the coming weeks.
Digital Leaders also asked some fantastic questions about safe gaming, which we were able to share with Laura Higgins, Director of Community Safety and Digital Civility at Roblox. Video content of her answers will be available on the platform very soon and will also help shape a brand new module on safe gaming for the primary platform!
All pupils enrolled in the secondary programme are able to access the community and we look forward to seeing and hearing more exciting contributions from them in the future. For schools enrolled in the primary programme there is also the option for pupils to have access to a separate community, which staff can choose whether they would like to use on an individual school basis.
