NSPCC Scotland has been working with an amazing group of young people from across Scotland, in partnership with the Scottish Youth Parliament, on a project that aims to help make the online world safer for children. The group of Digital Safety Ambassadors have co-designed a set of educational tools and resources to raise awareness of the risks young people face online, and to support influencing opportunities with decision-makers.
New educational tools to help children and young people understand the risks of the online world including artificial intelligence, online bullying and misinformation are being launched today.
The resources have been developed by a group of young people from across Scotland to help keep children safe online. It is part of a project called ‘Amplifying Child Safety Online’, being delivered by the NSPCC in partnership with the Scottish Youth Parliament (SYP).
The work is being led by 10 young people, including Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs), who have called themselves Digital Safety Ambassadors.
They have created a set of videos, posters and an educational session plan to support children and young people and professionals who work with them, with child safety online.
To produce these tools, they led workshops with groups of young people from regions across Scotland over the past 12 months, to explore their experiences of being online and the challenges they face in staying safe.
Other topics the groups have discussed include social media and body image, grooming and talking with strangers, hate speech, scams, and keeping personal information private.
The Digital Safety Ambassadors also worked with the NSPCC’s Voice of Online Youth, a group of 14 young people aged 13-17 from across the UK, and youth engagement groups in Northern Ireland and Wales to identify common issues across the devolved nations and ensure that young people’s voices and their views about online safety are heard and considered.
They hosted an online event last November to showcase the child online safety tools they have developed. This marked an important step in connecting young people’s lived experiences with those in positions of power. With the project now available to the wider public, the co-designed materials will be used to raise awareness of the risks young people face online, and support influencing opportunities with decision-makers.