Safer Internet Day archive

The 20th annual edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) took place on Tuesday, 7 February 2023 with a campaign slogan, once again, of "Together for a better internet". Organised within the framework of Better Internet for Kids (BIK) activities by the Insafe network (coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN)) and INHOPE (the International Association of Internet Hotlines), on behalf of the European Commission, Safer Internet Day 2023 was celebrated in almost 190 countries and territories worldwide, with exciting events and activities promoting the safe and positive use of digital technology.

This edition was particularly special as it marked the 20th anniversary of the celebration of this milestone event, and served as an opportunity to reflect upon the impact of this observance over the last two decades, as well as the recent important developments in EU legislation, such as the new European strategy for a better internet for kids (BIK+), the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles.

Vice-President Šuica and Commissioner Breton both acknowledged the day with dedicated video messages addressing children’s digital rights and habits, online opportunities and risks, the importance of media literacy skills, and urging policymakers, young people themselves, and all other stakeholders involved to gather and continue discussing how to concretely make the internet a better place for children.

An updated SID celebratory video was launched, gathering over 2,500 views on YouTube alone, and over 20,000 views through dissemination on the SID social media channels over the course of just one day.

On SID, Better Internet for Kids (BIK) launched the new BIK Teacher corner, a special section of the Better Internet for Kids website meant for teachers, educators and other adults working with children and young people, where they can find free information, advice, and suggested resources to help to educate and support youth to safely and positively navigate their digital world. These resources are split into two key types – learning modules and deep dives – and will be regularly updated to reflect emerging issues, and offer appropriate support to teachers and educators.

For further information on the events of the day, see the Safer Internet Day 2023 public report, which highlights some of the successes of the 2022 campaign, drawing upon the work of Safer Internet Centres (SICs) in Europe, SID Committees across the globe, organisational and industry SID Supporters, the European Commission and the central Safer Internet Day Coordination Team (based at European Schoolnet in Brussels).

The 19th annual edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) took place on Tuesday, 8 February 2022 with a campaign slogan, once again, of "Together for a better internet". Organised within the framework of Better Internet for Kids (BIK) activities by the Insafe network (coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN)) and INHOPE (the International Association of Internet Hotlines), on behalf of the European Commission, Safer Internet Day 2022 was celebrated in almost 190 countries and territories worldwide, with exciting events and activities promoting the safe and positive use of digital technology.

The Safer Internet Day website, our central platform showcasing the wealth of events and activities taking place across the globe, attracted more attention than ever. 

This year, which has been declared the European Year of Youth, the European Commission marked the day with special activities on social media. Vice-President Šuica and Commissioner Breton featured in a video together with young people to discuss children’s digital rights and online safety, discussing the EU’s actions in those areas. Additionally, a series of videos were published featuring Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Youth Ambassadors and youth panellists from different countries in Europe exchanging views on their priorities online, the importance of digital skills, and their perspective on how to ensure better online experiences in the future. Moreover, a live Twitter Spaces event was broadcast on the morning of SID, hosted by DG HOME and DG CNECT, providing an overview of how the EU is helping young people feel safer online through legislation and awareness raising.

Furthermore, the Better Internet for Kids annual report 2021 was published on the occasion of SID outlining the ongoing commitment to keeping Europe’s children and young people safe online through long-standing programmes and funding.

On social media, Safer Internet Day was a major topic of discussion; over the week leading up to Safer Internet Day (31/01-08/02), the Twitter @SafeInternetDay account received up to 13.5 million organic and promoted impressions. This year again, the #SaferInternetDay and #SID2022 hashtags became trending topics in various parts of the globe.

On social media, SID enjoyed widespread support from the EU institutions, with posts by the European Commission, Dubravka Suica, Thierry Breton, Mariya Gabriel, Ylva Johansson, Roberto Viola, the Greens, Roberta Metsola, BetterNet4EU, Digital EU, the Child Rights Intergroup in the European Parliament, Caterina Chinnici, Hilde Vautmans, Europol, Eurojust, EU Justice, the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, and DG Migration and Home Affairs.

Many other influential supporters also helped spread the word about SID on Twitter, such as the World Bank Digital Development, UNICEF, the Royal Family, YouTube, the World Health Organisation, Voices of Youth, COFACE Europe, Twitter, UN Women, the UN, António Guterres, Microsoft, Interpol, Thorn, OECD, Social Pilot, Kahoot, the Council of Europe, Common Sense, Namle, UNWRA, the FBI, the Irish Ombudsman, Sundar Pichai, UN Cyber, Lego, Apple, the Tor Project, Google, Mind, the Belgian Federal Police, INTERPOL, the Dutch Ministry for Justice and Safety, the World Health Organisation, Urban Decay, Binance, the UN Youth Envoy, the German Federal Minister for Justice and Protection, Plan International, BigBrotherWatch, Girlscouts, the Children’s Society, Anti-Bullying Pro, UNESCO, the Oxford Internet Institute, Sonia Livingstone, CO:RE, the Irish Department of Education, the UN Department of Peace Operations, ESET, the University of Oxford, the State Bank of India, ChildFund, the 5Rights Foundation, the UK Government Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Refuge, the ITU Secretary General, Make.org, the French Secretary of State for Children and Families, WePROTECT Global Alliance, BBC Teach, the ITU , Bosch, the Indian Minister of Entrepreneurship, and Telenor Pakistan.

Articles about Safer Internet Day were published in BBC Newsround, 20 Minutes, RFI France, Le Journal des Femmes, JDN, the Guardian, CNEWS, Ouest France, NationalWorld, The Indian Express, Times of Oman, UN News, Social Media Today, Yahoo News, the Council of Europe, RTE, la Repubblica, Süddeutsche Zeitung, TechRound, Microsoft, Infosecurity Magazine, JagranJosh, ITU News, Corriere Della Sera, Zawya, the New Times, to quote only a few.

We were able to achieve such a high level of visibility thanks to the awareness efforts of Safer Internet Centres, Safer Internet Day Committees and Safer Internet Day Supporters.

For further information on the events of the day, see the Safer Internet Day 2022 public report, which highlights some of the successes of the 2022 campaign, drawing upon the work of Safer Internet Centres (SICs) in Europe, SID Committees across the globe, organisational and industry SID Supporters, the European Commission and the central Safer Internet Day Coordination Team (based at European Schoolnet in Brussels).

The 18th annual edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) took place on Tuesday, 9 February 2021 with a campaign slogan, once again, of "Together for a better internet". Organised within the framework of Better Internet for Kids (BIK) activities by the Insafe network (coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN)) and INHOPE (the International Association of Internet Hotlines), on behalf of the European Commission, Safer Internet Day 2021 was celebrated in approximately 200 countries and territories, with exciting events and activities promoting the safe and positive use of digital technology right across the globe.

The Safer Internet Day website, our central platform showcasing the wealth of events and activities taking place across the globe, attracted more attention than ever. 

A short Safer Internet Day promotional video was launched on SID 2020 and reused for the 2021 campaign. On YouTube, “Safer Internet Day: Together for a better internet!”, which had been watched over 132,500 times by the close of the day of SID 2020, had accumulated over 163,000 views. On Twitter, the same video now had 1.7 million views (compared to 680,000 views by the close of the day of SID 2020), while on Facebook, it received over 36,500 views.

On social media, Safer Internet Day was a major topic of discussion; on Twitter, our @SafeInternetDay account received up to 2.7 million impressions, more than and 2.1 billion potential impressions. This year again, the #SaferInternetDay and #SID2021 hashtags became trending topics in various parts of the globe.

On social media, SID enjoyed widespread support from the EU institutions, with posts by the European Commission, Thierry Breton, Roberto Viola, Eva Maydell, the Council of Europe, the Digital Single Market, DG Migration and Home Affairs, EU Justice, EU Consumer Affairs, Juhan Lepassaar, Dubravka Suica, Ylva Johansson, the Child Rights Intergroup in the European Parliament, Mariya Gabriel (who wrote an article for EURACTIV on Safer Internet Day), and Margaritis Schinas.

Many other influential supporters also helped spread the word about SID on Twitter, such as the UN, UNICEF, António Guterres, Pope Francis, Gemma Styles, the Queen of Spain, the Tor Project, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, the Belgian Federal Police, INTERPOL, Roblox, the World Economic Forum, LEGO, the World Health Organisation, the UN Youth Envoy, the German Federal Minister for Justice and Protection, Monica Lewinsky, the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner, the Cybersmile Foundation, the Children’s Society, Anti-Bullying Pro, Erasmus, UNESCO, UNRWA, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Ooredoo Maldives, the Oxford Internet Institute, Sonia Livingstone, the Irish Department of Justice and of Education, the UN Department of Peace Operations, Lloyds Bank, the Maldives Police, ChildFund, WePROTECT Global Alliance, the French Secretary of State for Children and Families, the ITU Secretary General, Refuge, the UK DCMS, Full Fact, BBC Teach, the ITU, ENISA, Telenor Pakistan, Jo Stevens, BT Group, Europol and its European Cybercrime Centre.

Articles about Safer Internet Day were published in the Berliner Zeitung, 20 Minutes, France 24, Le Journal des Femmes, RTL France, JDN, CNEWS, RTL Luxembourg, Dakar Actu, Ouest France, Mouv’, AfriqueITNews, EMERCE, Arab News, The Indian Express, Egypt Today, DNA India, Times of Oman, Osservatorio Oggi, The Herald Scotland, The Economic Times, RTE, la Repubblica, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, to quote only a few.

We were able to achieve such a high level of visibility thanks to the awareness efforts of Safer Internet Centres, Safer Internet Day Committees and Safer Internet Day Supporters.

For further information on the events of the day, see the Safer Internet Day 2021 public report, which highlights some of the successes of the 2021 campaign, drawing upon the work of Safer Internet Centres (SICs) in Europe, SID Committees across the globe, organisational and industry SID Supporters, the European Commission and the central Safer Internet Day Coordination Team (based at European Schoolnet in Brussels).

The 17th annual edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) took place on Tuesday, 11 February 2020 with a campaign slogan, once again, of "Together for a better internet". Organised within the framework of Better Internet for Kids (BIK) activities by the Insafe network (coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN)) and INHOPE (the International Association of Internet Hotlines), on behalf of the European Commission, Safer Internet Day 2020 was celebrated in over 170 countries, with exciting events and activities promoting the safe and positive use of digital technology right across the globe.

The Safer Internet Day website, our central platform showcasing the wealth of events and activities taking place across the globe, attracted more attention than ever. On the day of SID itself, it received no less than 44,000 users – meaning that our website traffic more than doubled from SID 2019! The number of visits in the month leading up to SID also increased significantly, reaching more than 147,000 users.

In addition, this year's Safer Internet Day promotional video did not go unnoticed – at the close of the day of SID, it had been watched over 132,500 times on YouTube, 680,000 times on Twitter, and 8,500 times o Facebook!

On social media, Safer Internet Day was a major topic of discussion; on Twitter, our @SafeInternetDay account received no less than 2.5 million impressions, more than and 60 million potential impressions. This year again, the #SaferInternetDay, #SID2020 and #SaferInternetDay2020 hashtags became trending topics in various parts of the globe.

We were able to achieve such a high level of visibility thanks to the awareness efforts of Safer Internet Centres, Safer Internet Day Committees and Safer Internet Day Supporters. More than ever, we thank you for your support, your enthusiasm and your commitment.

On social media, SID also enjoyed widespread support from the EU institutions, featuring in posts from the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Roberto Viola, Eva Maydell, the Council of Europe, the Digital Single Market, DG Migration and Home Affairs, the European Data Protection Supervisor, DG Justice and Consumers, the Child Rights Intergroup in the European Parliament; in video addresses by Margaritis Schinas and Mariya Gabriel; and in an article written by Mariya Gabriel and Thierry Breton in The Parliament Magazine.

A flurry of other influential supporters helped spread the word about SID on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, such as the UN, UNICEF, Henrietta H. Fore, NSPCC, James McVey, Heads Together, Laura Marano, Snapchat, YouTube, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Millie Bobby Brown, Siwon Choi, Charli d'Amelio, Instagram, INTERPOL, Kaspersky, LEGO, Liberty Global, Sonia Livingstone, the Children's Society, the BBC, The Web Foundation, EUROPOL, Internet Society, the Irish Department of Education, the Turkish Information and Communications Technologies Authority, the Guardia Civil, the Spanish National Police, the Colombian Police, Save the Children, Orange Business Services, Amnesty, the New Zealand Ministry of Education, and much more!

Many newspapers around the world also published articles about SID, including RTBF, Luxemburger Wort, Mashable India, The Straits Times, CBS, La Republica, HLN, RTL Nieuws, and the Irish Times, among others.

For further information on the events of the day, see the Safer Internet Day 2020 public report, which highlights some of the successes of the 2020 campaign, drawing upon the work of Safer Internet Centres (SICs) in Europe, SID Committees across the globe, organisational and industry SID Supporters, the European Commission and the central Safer Internet Day Coordination Team (based at European Schoolnet in Brussels).

The 16th annual edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) took place on Tuesday, 5 February 2019 with a campaign slogan of "Together for a better internet". Organised within the framework of Better Internet for Kids (BIK) activities by the Insafe network (coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN)) and INHOPE (the International Association of Internet Hotlines), on behalf of the European Commission, Safer Internet Day 2019 was celebrated in over 150 countries, with exciting events and activities promoting the safe and positive use of digital technology right across the globe. A few highlights from the day include:

• A Twibbon campaign was utilised to raise awareness of the campaign, resulting in 680 supporters displaying a SID badge (Twibbon) on their social media profile pages.
• As in previous years, much activity took place on social media in advance of and on the day, with the coordination level SID profiles concluding the day with 19,000 fans on Facebook and 35,400 followers on Twitter.
• The #SID2019, #SaferInternetDay and #SaferInternetDay2019 hashtags trended worldwide several times during the day and were used in over 166,900 tweets by 105.9k users, gaining a potential 2 billion impressions.
• Additionally, use of the campaign hashtags activated a special custom emoji courtesy of Twitter. This year, the #SaferInternetDay hashtag was also localised in multiple languages with the support of Twitter so facilitating a truly global online discussion.
• Many influential organisations and individuals supported the day on social media, including the European Commission, Digital Single Market, Commissioner Gabriel, EU Digital Education, the Mayor of London, Spanish Royal House, Chancellor Angela Merkel, INTERPOL, UNODC, Twitter, Instagram, Amnesty International NZ, Google CEO, UNICEF, BBC, Microsoft and MTV, to name but a few.
• Industry support is key to the success of Safer Internet Day, and with the SID Coordination Team maintain strong relationships with the likes of Twitter, Google, Facebook and Snapchat when preparing the campaign, and indeed all year around in delivering on the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) agenda. For SID 2019, Twitter helped to raise visibility of the campaign hashtags by creating a special Safer Internet Day emoji, by providing Ads for Good credit and, for the first time this year, by localising the main campaign hashtag into numerous languages. Google included a Safer Internet Day promotion on many of its market search pages while also encouraging a Google security check-up in honour of the day, and also launched the Be Internet Awesome initiative with Facebook. Facebook also provided free ad credit to help boost SID posts, Snapchat created a special SID geofilter for its users, while TikTok joined the campaign for the first time and raised awareness about SID through its videos.
• Various campaign partners and supporters helped to deliver a special SID 2019 video message:
   

For further information on the events of the day, see the Safer Internet Day 2019 public report, which highlights some of the successes of the 2019 campaign, drawing upon the work of Safer Internet Centres (SICs) in Europe, SID Committees across the globe, organisational and industry SID Supporters, the European Commission and the central Safer Internet Day Coordination Team (based at European Schoolnet in Brussels). It also summaries SID actions linked to the #SaferInternet4EU campaign, launched on the previous edition of Safer Internet Day by Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, providing a heightened focus on online safety, media literacy and cyber hygiene across the EU.

The 15th edition of Safer Internet Day was celebrated on Tuesday, 6 February 2018. With a theme of "Create, connect and share respect: a better internet starts with you!", the day called upon all stakeholders to join together to make the internet a safer and better place for all, and especially for children and young people

A few highlights of the day include:

• A Thunderclap campaign helped spread the better internet message on the morning of Safer Internet Day with a potential reach of over 2.7 million people.
• On social media, the coordination-level profiles concluded the day with 18,000 fans on Facebook and 31,000 followers on Twitter. The #SID2018 and #SaferInternetDay hashtags trended worldwide several times during the day, being used in over 102,000 tweets, which had a potential reach of 1.5 billion impressions.
• Many influential supporters helped us spread the SID message too – to name just a few: European Commission, Digital Single Market, Commissioner Gabriel, Commissioner Navracsics, Andrus Ansip, INTERPOL, UNODC, Twitter, YouTube, Google, UNICEF, BBC, Android and Microsoft.
• As was the case in previous years, in 2018 we received industry support on Safer Internet Day, and we developed our strong relationships with the likes of ASKfm, Facebook, Google, Snapchat and Twitter. This year, Google included a Safer Internet Day promotion on many of its market search pages while also encouraging a Google security check-up in honour of the day, Facebook provided free ad credit to help boost our posts, Snapchat created a special SID geofilter for its users, while Twitter helped us to raise visibility of our hashtags by creating a special Safer Internet Day emoji and by providing some Ads for Good credit.
• Our partners from European Safer Internet Centres shared their top tips and advice in this SID video message:
  

For further information on the events of the day, see:

• Safer Internet Day 2018 press release.
• Safer Internet Day 2018 public report, which highlights some of the successes of the 2018 campaign, drawing upon the work of Safer Internet Centres (SICs) in Europe, SID Committees across the globe, organisational and industry SID Supporters, the European Commission and the central Safer Internet Day Coordination Team (based at European Schoolnet in Brussels).
• SID 2018 visuals, templates, gifs etc.

The 14th edition of Safer Internet Day was celebrated on Tuesday, 7 February 2017. With a theme of "Be the change: Unite for a better internet", the day called upon all stakeholders to join together to make the internet a safer and better place for all, and especially for children and young people.

A few highlights of the day include:

• A Thunderclap campaign helped spread the better internet message on the morning of Safer Internet Day with a potential reach of close to two million people.
• On social media, the coordination-level profiles concluded the day with 16,000 fans on Facebook and 23,000 followers on Twitter. The #SID2017 and #SaferInternetDay hashtags trended worldwide several times during the day with in excess of 125,000 tweets and a potential 1.1 billion impressions.
• The day also benefited from the support of many influential organisations and individuals such as Twitter, INTERPOL, Europol, ITU, European Commission, Andrus Ansip, UNODC, Members of the European Parliament, UNICEF and Manchester United football club, to name just a few.
• The 2017 campaign was also boosted by some great industry collaborations. Google included a Safer Internet Day promotion on a few of its market search pages, promoting the #SaferInternetDay hashtag and encouraging a Google security check- up in honour of the day. Facebook provided free ad credit to help boost SID posts. Snapchat created a special SID geofilter for its users (with a custom one for SID events in the UK and the US also) along with an original animation on its Discover channel, while Twitter helped to raise visibility of the official campaign hashtags by creating a special Safer Internet Day emoji.
• The day also marked the unveiling of self-regulatory initiatives between the European Commission, tech and telecoms companies, broadcasters, NGOs and UNICEF to address harmful content, conduct and contact online in the form of an Alliance to Better Protect Minors Online.

For further information on the events of the day, see:

• Safer Internet Day 2017 press release.
• Safer Internet Day 2017 public report, which highlights some of the successes of the 2017 campaign, drawing upon the work of Safer Internet Centres (SICs) in Europe, SID Committees across the globe, organisational and industry SID Supporters, the European Commission and the central Safer Internet Day Coordination Team (based at European Schoolnet in Brussels).

The 13th edition of Safer Internet Day was celebrated on 9 February 2016. The theme for the day was ‘Play your part for a better internet' encouraging all stakeholders – children and young people, parents and carers, teachers and educators, and industry and politicians - to celebrate the day and play a personal role in helping to create a better internet for all, but especially for children and young people.

• Safer Internet Day was celebrated in more than 120 countries across the world.
• At least 21,000 schools and 19.5 million people were involved in SID actions across Europe. 

A few highlights of the day include:

• A Thunderclap campaign was used to spread a message on social media on the morning of SID with a potential reach of 2.5 million people.
• The #SID2016 and #SaferInternetDay hashtags trended several times during the day, with in excess of over 100,000 tweets and potential reach of over 400 million people.
• Activities across Europe included, for example, the development of a mobile application about safer internet use in Croatia, a SID video competition in Cyprus, the launch of new safer internet board game in schools in Hungary and the third edition of SID TV in the UK.
• Activities further afield included a live event for 250+ students at Universal Studios in Hollywood, virtual classroom presentations in Australia, a video campaign with UNICEF and Google to promote a better internet for all in Brazil.
• Safer Internet Day was also featured in several articles by renowned international newspapers: United Nations, The Guardian, Huffington Post and even Monica Lewinsky in the New York Times and Vanity Fair.
• A Safer Internet Day feature appeared in the European Parliament magazine, further supplemented by an editorial piece on online safety featuring quotes from Commissioners and MEPs.

In addition, after serving the campaign for many years, the SID mouse was replaced by the SID smart device providing a fresher, modern look to the campaign's visual identity. The Safer Internet Day website was also redesigned and relaunched as a minisite of the new Better Internet for Kids portal, although retaining its unique URL of www.saferinternetday.org.

• Download the Safer Internet Day 2016 press release (pdf).
• See the Safer Internet Day 2016 report or summary report for further information.

The 12th edition of Safer Internet Day was celebrated on 10 February 2015.

The theme for the day was once again 'Let's create a better internet together' when the joint Insafe-INHOPE networks encouraged all stakeholders - children and young people, parents and carers, teachers and educators, and industry and politicians – to mark the day and work cooperatively to build a better internet for all, but particularly for children and young people.

• Safer Internet Day was celebrated in more than 110 countries across the world.
• At least 19,000 schools and 28 million people were involved in SID actions across Europe. 

The campaign was a huge success on social media....

• On Twitter, the #SID2015 hashtag trended globally several times on SID itself.
• Over 60 million people were reached worldwide with the #SID2015 hashtag throughout the SID campaign period.
• Over 480,000 people were reached by the SID Thunderclap campaign – a way of ‘making some online noise' on the morning of SID itself.
• Over 10,000 fans supported the SID campaign on Facebook.
• The SID video spot was viewed more than 24,000 times on YouTube.

See the Safer Internet Day 2015 report or summary report for further information.

Safer Internet Day 2014 was the eleventh edition of the event, and took place on Tuesday 11 February 2014. The theme for the day was 'Let's create a better internet together' when we encouraged all stakeholders to mark the day and work cooperatively to build a better internet for all, but particularly for children and young people

• Safer Internet Day 2014 was celebrated in more than 107 countries across the world.
• At least 19,000 schools and 54 million people were involved in SID actions across Europe.
• On Twitter, the #SID2014 hashtag trended globally several times on SID itself.
• Over 52.2 million people were reached worldwide with the #SID2014 hashtag throughout the SID campaign period.
• Over 328,800 people were reached by the SID Thunderclap campaign – a way of ‘making some online noise' on the morning of SID itself.
• Over 8,000 fans supported the SID campaign on Facebook.
• The generic version of the SID video spot was been viewed more than 23,000 on YouTube.

Safer Internet Day 2013 was the tenth edition of the event, and took place on Tuesday 5 February 2013. The theme was ‘Online rights responsibilities', encouraging all users of technology – and particularly children and young people – to ‘Connect with respect'. The day was celebrated in over 100 countries around the world.

• Over 10 million participants and over 16,150 schools across all Insafe network countries took part.
• The campaign website received over 276,000 page views during the SID campaign period (and over 55,500 page views on SID itself).
• There were over 15,900 tweets of the #SID2013 hashtag on 5 February 2013, with the tag ‘trending' several times worldwide during the day.
• The generic version of the customary Safer Internet Day video spot was viewed more than 42,500 times on the Insafe YouTube channel.

Celebrated on 7 February 2012, this was the ninth iteration of the Safer Internet Day campaign. With a theme of 'Connecting generations and educating each other' and a slogan of 'Discover the digital world together...safely!', the day focused on the reach of the online world across all generations and cultures, encouraging families to work together to stay safe online.

Key highlights included:

• Thousands of events were celebrated across 99 countries.
• The main Safer Internet Day action reached a minimum of 154,753 participants.
• There were approximately 23 million Safer Internet Day 2012 Google hits on Google.com and SID was promoted on the main Google search page.
• There were approximately 8,000 Tweets of the #SID2012 tag on 7 February, with the hashtag ‘trending' several times worldwide during the day.
• SID 2012 also marked the launch of the first SID kit for schools.

The Safer Internet Day activities in 2011 were very successful and topped Safer Internet Day 2010 in many respects:

• Thousands of events registered in 73 countries.
• 685 online registrations on our portal.
• 1,200 articles on Google.
• 2,5 million hits on Google News.
• 87,000 visits on saferinternet.org in February.

The topic was 'our virtual lives' and centred on the slogan 'It's more than a game, it's your life'.

The day was celebrated on 9 February 2010 through thousands of events in 65 countries all over the world by international organisations, governments, industry, schools, young people and private citizens, making it a multi-national, multi-stakeholder event. The European Commission organised a central event in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, consisting of a roundtable of experts, photos, and multi-media exhibitions on the theme.

A video clip was produced by the network, the first animation featuring the SID mascot. A SID quiz also took place, with more than 19,000 people taking part.

In 2009 the focus of SID was on youngsters' safety on social networking sites, with an emphasis on cyberbullying. This was in direct response to a dramatic increase in online bullying incidents seen at that time, in line with the greater mobility of online tools and the facility with which users were starting to generate their own content. 

Although SID originated in the heart of Europe, it quickly spread its influence around the world. Therefore in 2009 the concept of SID committees was created to strengthen bonds with countries outside the Insafe network, resulting in the creation of almost 30 committees within the first year.

2009 also saw the launch of the new SID logo featuring the SID mascot. It was a very successful day with 500 events celebrated in 50 countries all over the world.

The European Commission also launched an information campaign on SID, empowering teenagers to keep control when online.

SID 2008 was a special year as it marked the first themed SID focus campaign and, subsequently, the first awareness-raising SID video clip. The introduction of a theme not only inspired efforts to make the event more memorable than ever, but also resulted in exemplary teamwork across borders hence underlining the global nature of the virtual world.

An online competition also took place in the run up to SID with 655 teams competing against each other. Two other major central actions were launched in Brussels. At midnight, Viviane Reding, then European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, opened the Safer Internet Day blogathon. This crossed half the world through Australasia and the middle-east and left Europe on its path to South and North America.

A Youth Forum of thirty youths (14-17 year olds) from all corners of Europe led the second event, where they discussed their use of mobile phones and social networking sites and made proposals concerning awareness on internet safety to the European Commission, industry and politicians.

For SID 2007, mobile operators met in Brussels on 6 February and signed an agreement to safeguard children using mobile phones. This included supporting access control for adult content.

The Insafe network again organised a blogathon and a competition reaching 200 schools across 29 countries.

On 7 February 2006 the network organised a worldwide "blogathon": several organisations and special guests were invited to post blog articles which members of the public could comment on. The blogathon started in New Zealand, moving west across several time zones to end in Argentina.

Other activities around the world included quizzes, online games, a story-telling competition and round table discussions.

In total 37 countries, and approximately 100 organisations took part in SID 2006.

8 February 2005 was the first SID organised by the Insafe network. The number of countries taking part more than doubled with 30 countries and 65 organisations participating worldwide including Russia and Singapore as new additions.

The 2005 campaign was marked by an internet adventure storytelling contest for children, which was turned into a book of stories and then published.

The first Safer Internet Day (SID) took place on 6 February 2004, and was the brainchild of the SafeBorders project. It was celebrated in 14 countries (13 EU countries and Australia).

Since then, the popularity of SID has continued to grow year after year.