Yesterday was Safer Internet Day, which I realised when my son came home from school clutching a load of leaflets and papers about staying safe online. I was really pleased that there is such a thing as most kids these days use the internet but are not really aware of the dangers. It has become very much a normal part of life today. My son keeps pestering me to get a Facebook account, which I will not allow (he is only eleven and below the legal age) but many of his friends have one. You hear so many horror stories about cyber bullying and worse that it is great to have something that educates kids about staying safe online.

Research from Trend Micro has shown that:

• 12% of children accept any friend request they receive on Facebook
• Nearly half of children (44%) have friends on Facebook that they have never met in real life
• Half of children also use the internet mostly on their own, unsupervised, and admit to not telling the truth about bad experiences online
• 41% of parents feel that their children hide some of their online activity… but 57% of children admit to hiding online activity from Mum and Dad

These are worrying statistics and I was really interested to hear about this competition launched by Trend Micro in partnership with Get Safe Online. The competition is called What’s Your Story and it encourages young people to share their ideas on ‘How to be Web Safe’. It encourages young people to share their advice on the best ways to stay safe on the internet, while reminding them that the internet is a powerful tool and using it is a life skill. It was launched on 7th February 2012  as part of Safer Internet Day.

As the name of the competition suggests it is encouraging you to tell your story about being safe online. If you have had a bad experience on the internet, or know someone who has or maybe you have some tips for saying safe online, then you should enter the competition and share the story.  The ‘What’s Your Story’ competition invites schools, families and individuals aged 7 and above to submit a short story, song, poem, drawing or even a video to share their advice to other young people about How To Be Web Safe.  There is a grand prize of £5000 for the overall winner. There are also three runners up prizes of  £500 each and one school runner up prize of £1000. You can submit entries until 3 April 2012.

Rik Ferguson, Director Security Research & Communication EMEA at Trend Micro said “Following the success of last year’s global competition, we wanted to expand the ways in which young people in the UK could take part in the contest. There are now plenty of ways for them to express their creativity and show others how to best take responsibility for their actions online and raise awareness of the issues they may face. Keeping children safe online is paramount; from cyberbullying to viruses and the more publicised risks, it’s all about striking the right balance between allowing them to maintain a sense of independence and feeling able to ask for advice  and this competition allows them to do just that, while sharing their own experiences too.”

As part of the campaign, Trend Micro Internet Safety for Kids and Families has teamed up with some of the world’s leading organisations, to create a judging panel which includes: Get Safe Online, Childnet International, Yahoo! and Diana Award.

Tony Neate, Managing Director ‘Get Safe Online’, said: ” The “What’s Your Story?” competition is a brilliant opportunity for young people and schools to get creative and learn from their peers about using technology safely, in a fun and engaging way, whilst encouraging everyone to act responsibly online. With recent research from Trend Micro showing that a third of children aged 11-15 admit to taking more risks online than in real life, there’s never been a better time to remind them that the internet is a powerful tool and using it is an important life skill.”

I will be encouraging my son to enter this competition and hope that he learns something useful from it. If you want to ;earn more about the competition or to submit your entry then you need to visit www.trendmicro.co.uk/whatsyourstory  or email trend@octopuscomms.net