Swedish youth play their part for a better internet

On the occasion of Safer Internet Day (SID) 2016, we asked our youth panellists for their views on the theme of ‘Play your part for a better internet!'. Here, we hear from Ida from Sweden.

Date 2016-02-10 Author Youth Ambassador
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"I was contacted by a magazine in Sweden asking if I wanted to do an interview to highlight Safer Internet Day 2016. The interview was about online hatred and online safety. When I did this interview, I realised I have lots of experience on the internet. And since I've attended the Safer Internet Forum (SIF) for two years running, I believe I possess information about the internet that can be useful to other people.
 
"Here are some tips that I believe are important not only for youths but also for parents, adults, teachers and younger children that are just starting to use the internet.
  • Make sure that your accounts are private: if you have a private account, you are the one that decides who can follow you or not. Through this, you can make sure that you know the people that are following you.
  • Think before you post. You've probably already have heard this a lot, but it's important because, today, everything that goes online stays there forever. The internet doesn't make it easy for you to remove your mistakes.
  • Something I learned during a session with the European Youth Panel is that when you downloading apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Skype etc., they get access to more than you realise. They don't just access all the photos on your phone, but also contacts, your camera, a voice recorder and so on. This was something that led me to question if I really should have some of these apps on my phone. I've now deleted the Facebook app from my phone and I only use Facebook through the internet server.
  • Online hatred and cyberbullying is something that's hard to get away from, and I believe that it has become a big part in the everyday life of today's teenagers. I don't think we're able to delete online hatred and cyberbullying completely from the internet but, if we all start to act against it, I believe we can reduce it. But how? At the moment I don't know, but I think if I and other people start to apply effort to the question, we can figure it out. Right now I'm making a documentary movie together with three others in my class about online hatred. Through this film I hope to get clarity on how we can reduce online hatred and cyberbullying.
"There are lots of risks on the internet, but also a lot of positive things too. We can't let the negative things stop us from using the internet, but we have to keep them in mind when we go online."

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