J Initiative Marks Safer Internet Day in Ghana

For the past two years, J Initiative (JI), a RISE regional working group member, has worked with key child protection stakeholders in the public, private and civil society sectors to mark Safer Internet Day (SID) in Ghana. Organized under this year’s global theme, ‘Be the change: Unite for a better Internet’, the SID 2017 forum was held in Accra on 7 February 2017, with parallel events also occurring in other parts of the country. Key partners and attendees of the event included World Vision International, Facebook, Vodafone-Ghana, Tigo-Ghana, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Ghana Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-Ghana), Ghana Education Service, and the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

Speakers at the forum, including JI Executive Director Awo Aidam Amenyah, consistently called for continued sensitisation and capacity-building of all stakeholders to ensure a safer and better internet environment, especially for children. Furthermore, Gregory Dery, Child Protection and Gender Coordinator at World Vision Ghana, stressed the need for stakeholders to “work together to build the resilience of children, empower parents, provide appropriate content as well as establish a reporting and referral mechanism with a component of psychosocial services for victims and their families.” The SID Forum 2017 also launched the Keeping Children Safe Online (KCSO) tutorial, an Internet safety education tool, which has been adapted for use by Ghanaian children and schools across the country. More information on SID 2017 activities in Ghana can be found here.

SID is a day celebrated globally each year to promote online safety, particularly among children and youth. Other African countries that supported SID initiatives this year included South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria.