Internet Safety
The NCTE through its Internet Safety initiative Webwise.ie provides information and resources to schools, teachers, parents and students to help ensure that children’s and young people’s online experiences are positive and safe.
The Internet is a powerful learning tool and Webwise works to empower schools and students to use it safely, effectively and responsibly. Webwise monitors and addresses emerging trends while reinforcing the image of the Internet as a place to learn.
Webwise as the Irish member of Insafe (www.saferinternet.org) shares best practice, information and resources with European partners through the European Commission’s Insafe network. Insafe, the European network of Internet Safety Awareness Centres promotes safe, responsible use of the Internet and mobile devices to young people and raises awareness on reporting illegal web content to the Hotline (www.hotline.ie).
The NCTE has also collaborated on three major EU initiatives on Internet Safety:
SAFT
Since August 2002, the NCTE has become involved with the Safety Awareness for Tweens project (SAFT). While aiming to increase awareness of the Internet and the risks associated with it, the immediate tasks of the project are to gain knowledge on risk behaviour and information needs through a comparative study in Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Norway.
Dotsafe
The Dotsafe project officially ended on June 30 2002. It was a pilot project part-funded by the European Commission and supported by the various education and technology bodies across Europe. The project aimed to equip educators and parents with the information and resources they need to teach children to stay safe online. Dotsafe was the largest of six EU awareness actions, but was the only one focusing on teacher awareness, specifically head teachers, ICT co-ordinators and classroom teachers.
The ONCE Project
The Online Children in Education project was funded by the European Commission and co-ordinated and led by the Cyberspace Research Unit at the University of Central Lancashire. The project focused on parents and children and developed an interactive web-based education programme detailing Internet safety issues. Among the outcomes from the project was a database of websites voted both popular and safe by children and parents.
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