On Tuesday, February 10, Youth Radio was invited to Facebook headquarters to celebrate Safer Internet Day with ConnectSafely.org.
This international day of education around internet safety brought state leaders, youth, and tech activists and experts together to discuss issues of online security and privacy.
YR Reporter Rafael Johns spoke on the panel “Using Technology to Affect Social Change,” in a discussion about how diverse communities use online outlets to creatively engage around pressing personal and political issues. Additional panels addressed topics including cyber bullying, trolling and social cruelty, and a conversation with leaders from Google, Twitter, and Instagram.
Special guests included California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who gave the keynote speech, and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg who also gave remarks.
Safer Internet Day was created in 2004 as a project of the European Commission, and is now hosted annually every second Tuesday of February. Eleven years later, Safer Internet Day is celebrate in over 100 countries.