Here's is the theme, history and significance of this special day: Safer Internet Day 2022


Here's is the theme, history and significance of this special day: Safer Internet Day 2022

On this special day, stakeholders around the world come together to make the internet a safer and better place, especially for children and young people.

Safer Internet Day is celebrated every year on 8 February across the globe. The day is organised by the Insafe/INHOPE network of European Safer Internet Centres (SICs) in collaboration with the European Commission.

The Insafe/INHOPE network comprises of a global community that provides space for all its stakeholders to work on promoting a?respectful, responsible, critical and creative use of digital technologies together.

Anthony Di Bello, Vice President, Strategic Development at OpenText

“Safer Internet Day has never been more important than this year. The initial cybersecurity scramble caused by the pandemic is now a thing of the past, and businesses and employees everywhere have successfully adapted to the changes it brought. However, in 2022, we face a new problem: remaining secure while hybrid working becomes increasingly more prevalent in our professional lives.

Employees will continue to connect to corporate networks from a wide variety of devices, via various internet connections ranging from home networks, café Wi-Fi and offices. And so far, cybercriminals have been taking full advantage: with a triple digit increase in cyberattacks seen in the first half of last year alone. The threat of ransomware, impact of misinformation, and phishing scams should be top of mind for information security professionals, employees, and consumers alike.

Awareness and a basic understanding of the threats is the basis for the importance of Safer Internet Day in 2022. An increased focus on ensuring that security is front-and-centre of both consumers’ and employees’ minds. Putting cybersecurity at the top of their list of priorities – keeping themselves and the businesses they work for safe.”

Theme

This year, the world celebrates the 19th edition of Safer Internet Day with the theme "Together for a better internet". On this special day, stakeholders around the world come together to make the internet a safer and better place. Additionally, they look into making the internet a less harmful place for children and young people.

Safer Internet Day is celebrated by youth, parents, teachers, educators, children, politicians, decision makers among others. More than 200 countries and territories have joined hands in this endeavour, magnifying the global reach of this campaign.

History

In 2004, Safer Internet Day began as an initiative of the EU SafeBorders project. A year later, it was taken up by the Insafe network as one of its earliest actions. Over the years, this has grown beyond its traditional geographic zone and is now marked in at least 200 countries and territories worldwide. Amid the pandemic, the Safer Internet Day has become a landmark affair in the online calendar.

Issues like cyberbullying, digital identity and other social networking problems are given special importance as the day aims to raise awareness about online issues and current concerns.

Every country has a national centre that implements awareness and educational campaigns. They also run a helpline for common people and work with the youth to ensure an evidence-based as well as multi-stakeholder approach for creating a better internet space. With its popularity, Safer Internet Day is also celebrated outside Europe.

Significance

The main concept behind this day is to strengthen the bonds and relationships with countries outside the network. Responsible stakeholders believe that through this bond they invest in a harmonised promotion of the campaign that is spread around the world.