Students participated in numerous activities to celebrate Safer Internet Day. Our Year 6 students enjoyed learning about fake news in the IGS Bibliothèque.
Safer Internet Day is celebrated globally in February each year to promote the safe and positive use of digital technology for children and young people as well as inspire a national conversation.
The theme used for the day centered around “Fake News”.
Students were encouraged through a range of activities to ascertain what “Fake News” is and how to identify it.
“Fake news is if the internet might tell you things that are not good, and if you listen, you might end up hurt or sick!” – Year 1
“People making up the news for their own benefit.” – Years 3 and 4
“People sending misleading messages you click on.” – Years 3 and 4
“Fake News makes you want to check everything you read.” – Years 3 and 4
“Fake News is really dangerous – the consequences are serious because it changes the way people think, how they behave and what they believe. Always double, triple, quadruple check your sources.” – Year 6
Primary Teachers said some students in their class thought online news was just solely found on social media.
IGS Head Girl Grace Truman and Head Boy, Orlando Read promoted the day by preparing slides and activities for Tutor groups.
“Specific social media platforms such as ‘Tik Tok’ have become the go-to for some students in delivering their daily news feed. The accuracy of these feeds is highly questionable and students need to be equipped with the necessary skill in retrieving accurate news from reputable sites,” Primary Digital Innovator David Smith said.
“The office of the eSafety Commissioner has an excellent page on this. I encourage you to explore this further with your child as this is becoming ever more apparent in current affairs.”
“Anyone can post a story online and news travels fast on social media. So we need to question what we read and watch, before trusting that it’s right.”- eSafety Commissioner.