Safer Internet Day 2019 Top Tips for 11-18s

15 Jan 2019 Becca Cawthorne

Safer Internet Day 2019 is being celebrated around the world on Tuesday 5th February 2019.

The global theme is ‘together for a better internet’.

Everyone has their part to play in making the internet a better place, including you! 

Have a look at the tips and links below with some suggestions on how to get you started and help you to stay safe and positive online.

More for 11-18 year olds this Safer Internet Day!

These top tips were created around the theme of Consent Online for Safer Internet Day 2019. For more tops tips, resources and activities for 11-18s visit our advice centre.

Our internet, our choice, so…

  • Choose to ask for consent  Always ask others before sharing something about them. If they say no, we need to respect their choice and be a good friend. This should include checking before posting a selfie of you and your friend or before adding friends into group chats where they might be people they don’t know. Remember that things which we might think are okay or funny might actually worry or upset someone else.
  • Choose to be supportive and positive  You can inspire and support others by what you do and post online. If you see someone having a hard time online, offer them support and report posts or accounts that might be upsetting or offensive. 
  • Choose to be in control  Take the time to look at the privacy settings of your favourite accounts. They can help you take control over the information and posts that you are sharing and ensure that you are happy with what information people can see about you online. 
  • Choose to find out more Be aware of how your data is being stored and used by the apps on your device. Check the terms and conditions before signing up to a new app and make sure you are happy with your current access rights for each app. Remember you can change these at any time by going into the settings of your device or the app itself and many services will still work even if you choose not to grant all of the access rights it asks for.
  • Choose to talk about it  If you are not sure what to do or how to respond to something that happens online, then talk to someone about it. This could be a close friend, parent, teacher or even a helpline like Childline or The Mix.