Children will be educated on the hazards of the internet, particularly the risk of giving away personal information such as names, address and phone numbers. Safer internet day is intended to protect children from dangerous people they may meet online.
Head of CEOP, Jim Gamble, said; “Each month we see an average of 500 reports into CEOP, of which – on average – four a day indicate that a child may be at immediate risk. That is the harsh reality of child protection. But so often we leave our young people vulnerable because we fear the technology. That is like saying we can’t teach children how to be safe when crossing the road because we don’t understand how a car engine works or the risk if that car is driven in a dangerous way.”
Part of the campaign will target parents in an attempt to teach them how to minimize risk and safeguard their home computers to ensure that it is not easy for children to put themselves in danger. Gamble said; "We welcome the approach from Microsoft who are giving parents and children the opportunity to customise their browser to access safety advice in a quick simple way. We applaud Microsoft, O2 and Visa Europe for their critical contribution of online safety training in schools under the Protect programme.”
It has also become apparent that young children are using social networking sites. These sites are aimed at adults and teenagers and could expose young children to dangerous people. Cyber Researcher at University of Central Lancashire, Jo Bryce, spoke to the BBC; "I have been into schools to give talks on e-safety and teachers have told me that six and seven-olds there are on social networking sites."