IBM in conjunction
with Safer Internet Day, will release free Internet safety training
tools for students and have thousands of volunteers working to help
raise awareness and educate students and businesses on Internet safety
and digital responsibility.
IBM is unveiling three free volunteer kits to better educate students,
parents and teachers on Internet safety:
Control Your Online Identity
- A volunteer education kit, it is designed to help teenagers learn to
protect personal data online and reputation online. Teenagers are
typically savvy about how to use the Internet, but often unaware about
what happens to personal data once it's shared. This presentation and
volunteer information helps students learn how to protect personal data
and control how they present themselves online.
Internet Safety Coaching
- Aimed at teachers or adults working with children, this is a general
primer on Internet safety providing basic information about common
Internet activities by young people including instant messaging and
social networking. This kit is designed to raise awareness of Internet
safety and how to have a meaningful and open dialogue with children on
this topic.
Cyberbullying --
Aimed at parents or adults who work with children, this activity helps
adults learn about how young people use the Internet today and how to
recognize cyberbullying symptoms, how to prevent online bullying from
happening and how to intervene if it does happen.
"IBMers are committed
to helping educate people on ways to safely and securely use the
Internet," said Harriet Pearson, IBM Security Counsel and Chief Privacy
Officer. "The resources we are donating will help teachers and parents
raise awareness that most Internet-based threats to individual and
computer security can significantly be reduced by actions that informed
users take themselves."
In conjunction with today's announcement, IBM volunteers around the
world are educating communities about Internet safety. Some select
activities include:
In
Finland, IBM's lead volunteer on Cyberbullying will
participate in a national summit at Helsinki City Hall in conjunction
with Safer Internet Day. 60 IBM volunteers have already run
Cyberbullying workshops for parents in 100 schools across Finland.
In
Germany, IBM will expand its partnership with klicksafe, the
national partner of the Insafe network, focusing on the Manage Your
Identity Initiative, Already more than 500 IBM, retiree and partner
volunteers have delivered over 100 interactive workshops on the topic to
more around 3,000 students around the country.
In Italy, an IBM
team will conduct events in local schools using both the IBM materials
and a
film from Safer
Internet Day to discuss Internet safety and cyberbullying.
In
Romania, IBM volunteers are partnering with NGOs APDETIC and
Junior Achievement Romania to deliver an Internet Safety session to
students focusing on controlling your online identity and Facebook
usage.
In the
United Kingdom, IBM volunteers will use the volunteer
kits to promote online safety awareness in schools. IBMers will partner
with non-profit YPNGlobal on their initiative called Cyber Champions.
Last year IBM
employees donated more than three million hours of volunteer service.
The company has donated 34 volunteer kits to help both IBMers as well as
community members have meaningful activities and dialogues in the
community about various issues.
Since its inception in 2004, Safer Internet Day interest has grown to
reach all five continents and almost 80 countries, from Canada to South
Korea and Russia to Kenya, including all 27 countries of the European
Union. The goal of the day is to help make the Internet a better place
for our children and young people.
