Jan. 10, 2025
Over the years, Safer Internet Day has become a landmark event in the online safety calendar, with schools across the world getting involved to create a safer environment for all online. In 2025, Safer Internet Day takes place on Tuesday 11th February. Now in it's 22nd year, the day is celebrated in over 170 countries worldwide. From cyber-bullying to social networking, each year Safer Internet Day aims to raise awareness of emerging online issues and chooses a topic reflecting current concerns, this year having the theme of 'Too good to be true? Protecting yourself and others from scams online'. The UK Safer Internet Centre offer a variety of free resources here and there are many ways to get involved.
This Safer Internet Day we will assess the real scale of this issue and allow young people to share their experiences and ideas on how to tackle the problem.
At 2Simple, we’re supporting Safer Internet Day in a variety of ways. First of all we're making our Safer Internet Resources free to all, so that everyone can benefit from them whether they subscribe to Purple Mash or not. We also have resources available for parents, as well as resources for schools looking to host an online safety evening.
Inside Purple Mash, you can find Safer Internet Day Resources created by Childnet. These include:
These resources and activities can be used alongside the Purple Mash resources which have been specially created for Safer Internet Day, linked to this year's theme.
There are lots of ways to get younger learners thinking about online safety. After reading Samira's Story as a class while using the Emotions Cards, you could work in pairs and work through the Feelings Scenarios. For the next activity, use the Personal Information Cards to sort whether information could be given out online. Then open the Personal Information activity and write a short sentence about why each one should not be shared.
With this age group you can begin with the Signs of a Scam activity, and then work in pairs on the Phone Scams and Email Scams Purple Mash activities. Then, work through the Let's go Phishing activity, which will enable your students to write about Phishing using the template in Purple Mash. There is also a Listening activity, where children listen to the phone calls and decide on the intent of the caller.
Teachers may also want to download the FREE online safety pack, which features 7 lessons from the Purple Mash Online Safety Scheme of Work, 2BeSafe - Being Safe in a Digital World. Inside the pack, you'll also find:
If you're a Purple Mash subscriber, we would recommend allowing your class to create their avatar on their account. To create your avatar, simply click on the image next to your name and start creating! Give your class up to 20 minutes to get creative and see what they can come up with.
After each pupil has created their avatar, hold a discussion about why they have chosen their avatar to look how they have. This can be a way of introducing your identity online in a safe environment.
Did you know that if the class all have avatar images, you can create a 2Investigate database called Class that will automatically import records for the class with their avatars and names? The teacher can then add fields like 'Do you use avatars online?', 'what are your hobbies?', 'your ambitions?', 'do you use your real name online?' and other identity-related fields. This is an easy way to collect everyone's ideas and display in a safe way.
2Email is one of our most popular resources in Purple Mash and our Confidential Information activity will support your pupils in learning about what is safe to share online. Our email simulation is kept within Purple Mash, so is a safe environment for pupils to learn about email and how to respond.
Prejudice is another of our 2Email simulations in which Cyber Cop probes questions surrounding prejudice which can occur online teaching your pupils about bullying and prejudice online.
Join us on our free webinar, Teaching Online Safety on Tuesday 28th January at 4pm, to learn more about how you can cover the different aspect of online safety across the curriculum. You'll also get a chance to see the new 2BeSafe Online Safety Scheme of Work and explore the Education for a Connected World framework.
