Alex Cooney: How safe is your child online with 750 'friends'? 

We’re encouraged to share, share, share and often paint quite a personal picture of our lives on social media: do we really want our children to be sharing such information with people they don’t know, asks Alex Cooney

Since the different levels of lockdowns last March. we have relied on technology to meet so many of our children’s needs (as well as our own of course) – whether it’s homeschooling, socialising or entertainment. Picture: iStock

Today marks Safer Internet Day, an initiative launched by the European InSafe Network in 2009, as an opportunity to raise awareness about how global users can be safe and smart online. It’s an important reminder, since there are thought to be 4.6bn users in the world today, with 875m new users every day. A significant proportion of the digital population are children and Safer Internet Day is a good moment to highlight the need to protect and empower children in particular.

We know what kids are doing online both through our conversations with them in the classroom (or webinars). As part of our Safer Internet Day campaign in 2021, we have released a snapshot of some of our latest data: this data is based on responses from over 2,000 eight- 12-year-olds, the age group on which we principally focus.