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The Safer Internet Day Committee in partnership with Africa Safer Internet Day Partners has launched 2021 Africa Safer Internet Day in Ghana.
The day which falls on Tuesday 9th February 2021 is a day set aside to discuss how to make the web a safe place for everyone especially children.
In a statement the organizers of the impending celebration said this year’s theme “Positioning and Partnering for Child Online Protection” will be observed across Africa to help child-focused organizations tackle and approach COP issues holistically without having to prioritize one risk over another.
The statement also added that the commemoration will also “ensure a better online environment is created for ALL especially children and young people.
Foster a culture of COP with relevant stakeholders backed by policies including the children themselves.”
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It also added that the commemoration will also “develop, share or contextualize available resources to support children’s detection and management of cyberbullying situations.”
Awo Aidam Amenyah, Executive Director for Child Online Africa said at the launch via Zoom in Accra that “The 2021 celebration is keener because of our present situation, taking into cognizance the effects of COVID-19 on the world.
Our lives have moved from physical spaces to virtual ones with the students having to do mostly online classes and workers now having to telework and hold online meetings.”
The theme for this year, “Positioning and Partnering for Child Online Protection” is apt for the period that we are in.”
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She adds that “Government’s across the Africa needs to make a conscientious effort to partner various online protection agencies to ensure the internet is a safer place for all especially children guided by the New Child Online Protection Guidelines launched by the International Telecommunications Union in 2020.
As the Safer Internet Day Committee for Ghana and one of the Child Online Protection Implementation Partners for the, we are more than happy to be working with the African theme since it will afford all countries in Africa to team up in order to make things happen for the African Child.”
The statement said funding support has come from “the National Communications Authority, Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors, Facebook-Africa, Africa Digital Rights Hub, Innovare Learning Ltd and Dimension Data Limited.”
The Africa Safer Internet Day is expected to contribute to information and knowledge sharing on Child Online Protection best practices, from governance to basic skills/tips and is expected to bring Child Protection stakeholders, both local and international, together towards securing that African Child is safe online.
For more information send us an email at info@childonlineafrica.org or join in the conversation by following us on Twitter: @COnlineAfrica Facebook: @ChildOnlineAfrica Instagram: Child_Online Africa and by using the hashtag: #ASID2021
