The police, schools and Manx Telecom are teaming up to support Safer Internet Day today (Tuesday).
In recent months Constable Michael Griffiths has been leading internet safety sessions in severaln schools in conjunction with Ian Barker, corporate product manager at Manx Telecom.
Constable Griffiths will be providing information on internet safety at assemblies at Ballakermeen High School and St Ninian’s High School reinforcing the Safer Internet Day message. Manx Telecom is producing a flyer to support the campaign which will be available for customers to pick up at the company’s Strand Street store.
On March 6 Constable Griffiths will also hosting an internet safety session at Castle Rushen High School and sessions at other schools may be added but have yet to be confirmed.
He said: ‘The Isle of Man Constabulary is keen to raise awareness of staying safe online. Young people in the island have all grown up with the internet and most of them are technologically aware, however, not all are aware of the need to stay safe online and how to achieve that. We are working together with the schools to try and educate the young people on staying safe.’
Voirrey Barron, marketing manager at Manx Telecom, said: ‘Through our membership of Internet Watch Foundation, Manx Telecom supports the internet industry to provide the UK internet hotline for the public and IT professionals in the UK and Isle of Man to report criminal online content in a secure and confidential way. We take our responsibilities as an internet provider very seriously, and supporting campaigns such as Safer Internet Day is part of our ongoing strategy to help our customers stay safe online. We already provide a great deal of information on our website about internet safety – and our customer service and tech bench staff regularly give advice to customers on how to set up live parental controls on broadband routers. We have also given internet safety presentations to primary school pupils at the annual Crucial Crew week for several years.’