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Young people’s internet safety films to be used as educational resources, as Childnet announce national winners of its 2017 Film Competition

Leading online safety charity Childnet announced the winners of the eighth annual Childnet Film Competition at a private screening held for the competition finalists and industry guests at the British Film Institute on London’s Southbank.

Judged by a panel of experts from the BBC, BBFC and the BFI, the two winning schools and the four other finalists will now see their films used as internet safety resources to educate other young people about how to ‘Be the change’ and use the internet positively and safely.

The Childnet Film Competition was founded in 2010 to harness the positive role of peer-to-peer education and provide a creative and inclusive approach to empower and inspire young people aged 7-18 to use technology safely, positively and creatively.

Through the process the young people create valuable resources to educate their peers about staying safe online and develop their own understanding of what it means to be a good digital citizen.

Will Gardner, CEO of Childnet, said:
“The Childnet Film Competition is a great opportunity for young people to showcase their creative skills by creating engaging and educational videos to spread key online safety messages. The standard of entries this year has been exceptionally high and it’s clear to us that these young people are really passionate about making the internet a better place for all. All of the finalists’ films will be invaluable resources to help educate other young people about online safety.”

The competition invites schools and youth organisations from across the UK to capture their internet safety messages in a short film. This year, the film competition invited young people to think about how young people can come together and make a positive change online.

Childnet Education Projects Officer, Becky Nancarrow, said:
“This year’s Film Competition theme, ‘Be the change’, was all about inspiring young people to think about how they as young people can change the way that they use the internet for good. Today we not only saw the time and dedication that has gone into creating these films but the passion young people have for creating a better internet for everyone. It’s amazing that the young people’s films will continue to have an even wider impact, as they become resources for schools and youth groups to use”.

With over 127 entries from across the two categories; primary and secondary, entries ranged from animated films, to dramas about cyberbullying, to a news story about the positive uses of the internet. 6 schools attended the finalists’ event at the BFI in London before seeing their films on the big screen.

The films were judged by David Austin OBE Chief Executive at the BBFC, Catherine McAllister Head of Safeguarding and Child Protection BBC Children’s, and Joanna van der Meer Film Tutor and Family Learning Programmer at BFI Southbank.

The winners of this year’s Film Competition were St Michael in the Hamlet Primary School in the primary category with their film Be the Change: It starts with us. In the secondary category the winners were Dover College with their film Trouser Boy.

The winning films from the Childnet Film Competition can be viewed here: www.childnet.com/filmcompetition

Quotes from the Film Competition 2017 finalists’ event

‘The film competition puts online safety into a practical setting, in school or at home children don’t always get it, but putting those messages into a film they get into it and understand it more because it’s encouraging them to do something for themselves; something that’s big, that other people will see, and something that’s fun.’ – Teacher

‘I think it’s a great way of teaching children how to be safe, because it’s also a fun way of being in a competition, so it’s competitive. Through the competition I learnt that even if you do something wrong you can always find a way to make it better’ - Young person, primary category winner

‘I think this competition is really good for teaching people about online safety, on top of that we had a lot of fun doing the video! It took us a few hours and overall the experience was really good for us, and today was just the highlight’ – Young person, secondary category winner

Support the cause in creating a diverse and inclusive Internet for all

With this year’s 'Stop Cyberbullying Day', there’s no better opportunity to teach your students about using the Internet respectfully and responsibly.

'Stop Cyberbullying Day' was founded by The Cybersmile Foundation on June 17th 2012, to promote online positivity and good digital citizenship. Since then, every year on the third Friday in June, 'Stop Cyberbullying Day' has become a growing force of positivity

The day brings together the entire global community in demonstrating our mutual commitment towards making the Internet a safer place for young people to enjoy. The aim is for all young people to have the freedom to use the Internet for learning, gaming and being social without the fear of threats or harassment.

The facts
Cyber bullying and online abuse can lead to social isolation, depression, eating disorders self-harm and suicide. Statistics from PEW Research and iSafe Foundation state that:

40% of Internet users say they have personally experienced digital abuse

20% of those who experienced online harassment said they feared for their lives

50% of teens have been bullied online

How to get involved
Whether you choose to be involved on the day itself or whether you choose to tackle cyber bullying all year round, there are a number of ways you can get involved.

Twitter - ask students to come up with advice they would give a victim of cyber bullying or come up with an anti-cyber bullying slogan and Tweet it to @CybersmileHQ using the hashtag #stopcyberbullyingday

Fundraise - hold a non-uniform day, tackle a sponsored challenge or hold a cyber bullying awareness event in your school

Become a Partner - join the Cybersmile Foundation, 'Stop Cyberbullying Day' campaign as an official school partner.

As part of our commitment in helping schools educate children about safer Internet usage we are pleased to offer you our cyber bullying assembly plan, which can be downloaded by both Free and Premium Plus E-safety Support members

“'Stop Cyberbullying Day' has grown to become something very special. Engagement numbers each year are in the millions, yet the event is still in its relative infancy. Although Cybersmile will continue to coordinate 'Stop Cyberbullying Day', providing a designated platform for the event to continue to grow at its own speed makes complete sense.” – Dan Raisbeck, Co-Founder, The Cybersmile Foundation.

The internet has overtaken television as the top media pastime for the UK’s children.

Ofcom’s report on Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes, published recently, reveals that children’s internet use has reached record highs, with youngsters aged 5-15 spending around 15 hours each week online – overtaking time spent watching a TV set for the first time.

Even pre-schoolers, aged 3-4, are spending eight hours and 18 minutes a week online, up an hour and a half from six hours 48 minutes in the last year.

According to Ofcom’s data, children aged 5-15 have increased their weekly online time by an hour and 18 minutes in the last year to 15 hours.

In contrast, children are spending less time watching a TV set, with their weekly viewing dropping from 14 hours 48 minutes in 2015 to 13 hours 36 minutes in the last year.

YouTube is one of the most popular online destinations for children to watch content, with around three quarters (73%) of those aged 5-15 using the video site. It is also a hit with pre-schoolers with 37% regularly watching YouTube videos, who typically pick ‘TV content’ such as cartoons and mini-movies.

And older children are beginning to show a preference for YouTube with four in ten 8-11s and 12-15s saying they prefer watching YouTube than the TV set.

Despite this, Ofcom’s research shows that TV still plays an important role in children’s lives with nine in 10 still watching, generally every day, and the largest number of children watching at peak family viewing time, 6 – 9pm.

Digital childhood
Digital devices are more widespread among children than ever, including the very young. Today’s research finds that a third (34%) of pre-schoolers (aged 3-4) own their own media device – such as a tablet or games console.

Pre-schoolers typically enjoy digital entertainment on a tablet, with more than half (55%) using one, and 16% owning their own tablet – up from just 3% in 2013.

As children reach pre-to-early teenage years, they prefer smartphones to tablets – with the proportion of children owning one up from 35% to 41% in the last year. This means one in three tweens (8-11s), and eight in 10 older children (12-15s) now have their own smartphone.

As children spend more of their time online, their awareness of advertising and ‘vlogger’ endorsements has also increased with more than half of internet users aged 12-15 (55%) now aware that online advertising can be personalised - up 10 percentage points in the last year. And, 12-15s awareness of product endorsement from vloggers has also increased by 10 percentage points to 57% in 2016.

But, many children still need help to identify advertising on search engine Google with only a minority of 8-11s (24%) and 12-15s (38%) correctly recognising sponsored links.

Book at bedtime
Despite the importance of digital devices in children’s lives, Ofcom’s Digital Day research, also published recently, shows that reading is the third most popular activity with primary school aged children (62%) beating newer activities such as watching online video clips (47%), instant messaging (10%) and watching music videos (11%)5.

Staying safe online
More than nine in ten children aged 8-15 have had conversations with parents or teachers about being safe online, and would tell someone if they saw something they found worrying or nasty.

Parents of older children are most likely to be having these types of conversations with their children, with 92% of parents of 12-15s saying they have spoken to their child about online safety, an increase of six percentage points since 2015.

Nearly all parents (96%) of 5-15s manage their children’s internet use in some way – through technical tools, talking to or supervising their child, or setting rules about access to the internet and online behaviour. Two in five parents use all four approaches.

And, parents of children aged 5-15s are more likely to use network level filters in 2016 - up five percentage points to 31%7.

On the most part, families are in agreement that their child has a good balance between screen time and doing other activities. Most children aged 12-15 (64%), and parents of children of the same age (65%), believe this balance is about right.

Jane Rumble, Ofcom Director of Market Intelligence said: “Children’s lives are increasingly digital, with tablets and smartphones commanding more attention than ever. Even so, families are finding time for more traditional activities, such as watching TV together or reading a bedtime story.”

Click here to download the full Children and Parents: media use and attitudes report