Another successful Safer Internet Day!

On Tuesday, 9 February 2021, we celebrated the 18th edition of Safer Internet Day (SID), with events and activities taking place right across the globe.

Date 2021-02-09 Author Safer Internet Day team Section sid

While we will still be reviewing activity over the coming weeks, early social media reports suggest that somewhere in the region of 200 countries and territories marked the day in some way, along with many organisational supporters too.

With a theme, once again, of “Together for a better internet”, the day called upon all stakeholders to join together to make the internet a safer and better place for all, and especially for children and young people. Like many other lines of activity, preparations for Safer Internet Day were carried out with a lot of uncertainties with regards to the impact of the pandemic on the campaign and the level of attention it would gather. The day was nonetheless a great success, and we are excited to share with you just a few of the achievements so far from the coordination level.

New Safer Internet Day website proves popular
Revamped for the 2021 campaign, the Safer Internet Day website at www.saferinternetday.org - the central platform showcasing the wealth of events and activities taking place across the globe - attracted almost 39,000 users on the day of SID. Including also the month leading up to the day, this figure rises to almost 125,000 users.

SID promotional video has been watched nearly 2 million times since its 2020 launch
A short Safer Internet Day promotional video was launched last year, and reused for the 2021 campaign. On YouTube, “Safer Internet Day: Together for a better internet!”, which had been watched over 132,500 times by the close of the day of SID 2020, has now accumulated over 163,000 views. On Twitter, the same video now has 1.7 million views (compared to 680,000 views by the close of the day of SID 2020), while on Facebook, it now has over over 36,500 views.

Trending on social media
On social media, Safer Internet Day was a major topic of discussion; on Twitter, our @SafeInternetDay account received up to 2.7 million impressions, more than and 2.1 billion potential impressions. This year again, the #SaferInternetDay and #SID2021 hashtags trended in many parts of the globe.

Influential supporters
On social media, SID enjoyed widespread support from the EU institutions, with posts by the European Commission, Thierry Breton, Roberto Viola, Eva Maydell, the Council of Europe, the Digital Single Market, DG Migration and Home Affairs, EU Justice, EU Consumer Affairs, Juhan Lepassaar, Dubravka Suica, Ylva Johansson, the Child Rights Intergroup in the European Parliament, Mariya Gabriel (who wrote an article for EURACTIV on Safer Internet Day), and Margaritis Schinas.

Many other influential supporters also helped spread the word about SID on Twitter, such as the UN, UNICEF, António Guterres, Pope Francis, Gemma Styles, the Queen of Spain, the Tor Project, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, the Belgian Federal Police, INTERPOL, Roblox, the World Economic Forum, LEGO, the World Health Organisation, the UN Youth Envoy, the German Federal Minister for Justice and Protection, Monica Lewinsky, the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, the Cybersmile Foundation, the Children’s Society, Anti-Bullying Pro, Erasmus, UNESCO, UNRWA, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Ooredoo Maldives, the Oxford Internet Institute, Sonia Livingstone, the Irish Department of Justice and of Education, the UN Department of Peace Operations, Lloyds Bank, the Maldives Police, ChildFund, WePROTECT Global Alliance, the French Secretary of State for Children and Families, the ITU Secretary General, Refuge, the UK DCMS, Full Fact, BBC Teach, the ITU, ENISA, Telenor Pakistan, Jo Stevens, BT Group, Europol and its European Cybercrime Centre.

Safer Internet Day in the press
Articles about Safer Internet Day were published in the Berliner Zeitung, 20 Minutes, France 24, Le Journal des Femmes, RTL France, JDN, CNEWS, RTL Luxembourg, Dakar Actu, Ouest France, Mouv’, AfriqueITNews, EMERCE, Arab News, The Indian Express, Egypt Today, DNA India, Times of Oman, Osservatorio Oggi, The Herald Scotland, The Economic Times, RTE, la Repubblica, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, to quote only a few.

Save the date for SID 2022!
So, with SID 2022 now behind us, what's next? The Better Internet for Kids (BIK) project, and the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres run events and activities to raise awareness of online safety and digital citizenship all year round. There are several ways in which you can keep an eye on the initiatives to come:

You can also subscribe to the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) bulletin, a quarterly newsletter providing an in-depth exploration of specific online safety issues – such as positive online content, online challenges, media literacy, and much more.

Next year, SID will take place on Tuesday, 8 February 2022 when we will again join “Together for a better internet”. Campaigning activities will start from September 2021 onwards.

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