Today is Safer Internet Day, which aims to promote the safe, positive, and responsible use of digital technology for children and young people.
There are some really good e-learning platforms available covering a wide range of the curriculum, and safe use of such tools has transformative potential making education much more dynamic and fit for purpose in the 21st century.
This year’s theme is ‘Together for a Better Internet’ which reminds us it’s incumbent on everyone to build safer and more responsible usage for children and young people, particularly in a largely unregulated area.
Anyone working with children and young people, or with roles within the education sector, will be especially conscious of ensuring a safer online environment. This includes teaching children how to use the internet and all digital products safely, with appropriate safeguards, so that many aren’t left behind by progress in an area which is advancing at an extraordinary pace.
I’ve seen first hand the effects of digital poverty throughout voluntary roles within the education sector over the years. Children and young people who grow up without sufficient access to digital products and the internet will be more at risk both of online harms and fewer opportunities in employment when they leave education.
Whilst Safer Internet Day is focussed on children and young people, the principles of a safer internet apply across all sectors and to adults too. All the sexual harassment casework I’ve been involved with in the last few years has involved an element of online harassment, including stalking. Since October 2024, there is now a proactive duty to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace and when the relevant section of the Employment Rights Act comes into force this becomes a duty to take “all” reasonable steps to prevent harassment.
As part of Glass Ceilings Change Management’s wider influencing work, I’m pleased to have been inputting advice around safe, ethical, and inclusive use of AI in an advisory board capacity in the past week.
As I mentioned during January’s ‘Through the Glass’, I’m also providing advice around this topic on a project this year.
Laura Evans, CEO. 10th February, 2026
