Safer Internet Day 2018 youth event video content is now live!

The Safer Internet Day 2018 youth event video content is now live! The videos show what happened at the London Safer Internet Day event, as well as key speeches from young people, industry and government.

Two members of the Childnet Youth Advisory Board played important parts in this year’s Safer Internet Day London event, read about their experiences and watch the videos below.

Afua, a member of the Childnet Youth Advisory Board, gave a Key note speech at the Safer Internet Day London event:

The 6th February had been marked in my planner in red with a big smiley face for a long time. As the time grew nearer it became more real and so did everything else like essay deadlines all for the same day but because I wanted to be part of #Safer Internet Day 2K18 my priorities were set. I had cleared the day in advance and wanted to honour my commitment to make the keynote speech and be one of the young people who spoke at the podium that day. The writing of the keynote speech was not difficult as it was very relevant. This is because as a Childnet Youth board member I had been exposed to the ideas in this year’s theme “Create, Connect and Share Respect: a better internet starts with you”.  The most exciting guest I met was not one but two amazing young pupils who did not hesitate to enthusiastically take myself and my mother downstairs to check out one of the stations. My biggest challenge was practicing my speech, but this was easily overcome by Ellie’s suggestion to do it in front of the camera, it not only boosted my confidence, but it also helped my words flow more freely. Also, the camera guy (Matt) was so helpful in suggesting that I repeat the first sentence of my speech again at the end to give my audience a chance to remember the main message.

Overall, my biggest take away-s are #ItStartsWithUs, we should continue to be the change we want to see in this world and Share Respect. Instead of merely sharing posts and banter always remember to dab in a bit of respect. I like that. (Arghh I should have said that in my speech)

Charlie, a member of the Childnet Youth Advisory Board, was the chair of the Safer Internet Day London event:

Safer internet day 2018 was amazing. To be there representing young people was a huge honour and I really felt that the young people who were involved had fantastic ideas in their presentations and I am confident that these ideas were listened to and will be put into action. What an inspiring venue the BT centre was. The best part of the day was the conference itself it was a real eye opener and was an experience that I will keep with me forever. I also loved doing the live stream on Facebook with Afua showing the interactive workshops as I thought they really showed how young people can stay safe on the internet. It was great meeting everyone, especially the Childnet group, I particularly enjoyed listening to Michael Bell (Member of the Department for Education).  It was a challenge to host a conference talking in front of that many people, however because I feel passionate about this subject it was great that so many people turned up to listen to us the young people and our opinions. After it had finished I was confident that I had done a good job and the conference was a success.

Huge shout out to Ellie and all the team for organising such a fantastic interactive event.

Roll on Safer Internet Day 2019!!