Young people in Scotland are being urged to help detect misinformation and inauthentic online content as part of Safer Internet Day 2021 today.

A variety of online seminars and tools will be available to young people as part of this year’s CyberScotland Week (22-28 February) to help them stay protected.

On Wednesday February 24, Professor Karen Renaud, from Abertay University, one of the UK’s leading Universities in cybersecurity, will be joined by Internet Safety and Security Consultant, John Carr OBE, on a live webinar to discuss what is needed to be done to keep children safe and secure online.

The NSPCC estimates that 90 cybercrimes were recorded a day against children in 2020 and Safer Internet Day aims to draw attention to way and means young people can be protected online.

CyberScotland Week, the week-long series of virtual events helping to make Scotland cyber aware and resilient, includes a number of events that focus on internet safety.

Ciara Mitchell, Head of Cyber at ScotlandIS, said: “Keeping children safe online is a huge challenge for the digital and cyber industries and initiatives such as Safer Internet Day shine an important light on the issue. More importantly, it also encourages and disseminates useful information to help detect misinformation online. This is reflected in the events during CyberScotland Week this month, where we are looking forward to insights and discussions amongst some of the leading voices in this field.”

Professor Renaud added: “With our children using the Internet more than ever due to the pandemic, it is absolutely vital that we inform and educate our young people, as well as their carers and teachers. By instilling good cyber hygiene from an early age, we can form positive behaviours that will safeguard our children’s cyber safety and security through their teenage years and into adulthood.”

A number of other CyberScotland Week events focus on internet safety including FutureScot’s own Public Sector Cyber Resilience virtual conference on Tuesday, February 23, as well as the following events:

  • Wed 24th Feb – Avoiding scammers and schemers – keeping users safe online
  • Thu 25th Feb – How to promote digital safety in an accessible manner
  • Fri 26th Feb – How to promote digital safety to those with low IT confidence