Allertonshire school's year 7 pupils Louise
Chapman and Alexander Brown take
safety lessons in use of the internet

A POSTER competition for children and young people designed to promote safer use of the internet is set to be launched across North Yorkshire. The competition will involve school pupils of all ages up to 18 and requires them to design a poster aimed at other children and young people on the theme of password safety and the importance of keeping passwords private.

The competition was launched by the county council to coincide with Safer Internet Day 2009, a pan-European initiative which is part of a series of measures developed by the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Board for use in schools and includes the introduction of software packages and online resources designed to help children navigate the internet safely.

Ian Anderson, the E Safety Champion on for the Board said: "The internet provides young people with access to an environment in which there are few boundaries but which they find they are frequently more able to navigate than their parents. In common with Safeguarding Boards across the country we are developing an E Safety Strategy to assist young people to access the benefits of new technology in a safe way.

"The internet has been compared with a swimming pool. While a pool can be made safer by introducing security measures, the best way of protecting children is to teach them to swim. So with the internet, the best way of protecting young people is to teach them to use the technology safely."