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Our goal is to educate the students in our school community, as well as our local primary schools, on the dangers of the internet. We also aim to improve the mental health of our school community as a result.
Our Social Issue
Our social concern was how the internet can negatively effect young people. There are many dangers for young people to be aware of when using the internet. As an iPad school, students in our community have online access all day long and we feel it may have a negative effect on mental and physical health, as well as social skills. Cyberbullying, social media, predators, the dark web etc. are all aspects of the online environment that students need to be aware of. We are also aware that young people can become addicted to their digital devices and may rely on them too much.
Why We Chose It
We chose this issues as the internet is one of the biggest issues among our generation. As a group, we wanted to pick something that hit close to home, whether it had to do with our friend or family or even ourselves and the internet was the issue that everyone could relate to, even our teacher. We all discuss how the internet is a great thing but how it also has a dark and dangerous side. We felt that this needed to be highlighted more to the younger generation.
Our Goal
The big idea was to raise awareness about the dangers of the online arena. What we wanted to achieve throughout this project was to show our generation and the younger generation the dangers of cyber bullying, online addiction, talking to strangers online, and for them to realise that it can be unsafe. Another one of our goals is to spread awareness about cyber bullying and how common it is nowadays. How we wanted to achieve this is spreading awareness with posters and social media pages. We have lots of events planned to achieve all out goals.
Our Innovative Action
We’ve been spreading awareness to people by posting on our social media pages, as well as using posters and powerpoints within our school. We held talks with the primary school and also the first years and TYs in our school. We also gave people resources to use if they’re being cyber bullied and or felt in danger online. We are currently recording a podcast and a short film about the topic our project is focusing on. We aim to hold a sponsored sleepover in April also.
Our Impact
We have made a positive difference by raising awareness for the dangers on online activity such as cyber bullying, the dangers of social media, pressure, anxiety and stranger danger. We feel that students are now more prepared to deal with these issues and know where to find help if needed. We believe that our students have evaluated the actions they take online, and will now use online platforms more responsibly. Students have been given the opportunity to have their opinions heard during this project also.