TELECOMMUNICATIONS and entertainment provider Digicel joined millions of people across the world Tuesday to celebrate Safer Internet Day, which sought to promote the safe and responsible use of technology, especially among young people.

Digicel, in a release, said it was able to raise awareness via its social media pages and held a discussion with students at the Kingston High School about the importance of safe and responsible behaviour online.

Digicel’s director of legal and regulatory affairs, Gail Moss-Solomon, led the rap session with a group of 30 Kingston High students. She touched on a number of topics, including social media bullying, online etiquette, censorship, and dealing with inappropriate content. Moss-Solomon also discussed the legal regulations and implications of abusing Internet use.

The talk was welcomed by the school’s principal, Davion Johnson, who said: “One of the challenges we have is when the students use their cell phones to take photos of themselves to put up on Facebook and Instagram that are not depicting the values of the school, nor even in their best interests.

“So giving them this opportunity to speak to persons who are in the field of technology and understand how these things can affect them is one of the most useful things we can educate these students about, given that we are living in the digital age.”

Ninth-grader Amoy Farquharson shared, “I found today’s session on Internet safety to be really helpful and informative. For me, my mother doesn’t really allow me to use social media because she thinks it will distract me from my schoolwork. But today I learnt that, depending on how we use the Internet, it can actually be very useful. We just have to be responsible with what we put on the Internet and how we use it.”

“Social media and the Internet hold vast potential for young Jamaicans, when it is used responsibly,” Moss-Solomon said. “We can see this already just by looking at all the local social media personalities who have leveraged these platforms to start a career and make a living. Therefore, it is important to ensure our young people are taught how to use the Internet to their advantage. As one of the major enablers for Internet access in Jamaica, we feel it is part of our responsibility to educate people and raise awareness of Internet safety.”

Digicel has held a long-standing partnership with Kingston High and has done a number of initiatives to boost the school’s access to science and technology. This includes the donation of a mobile science lab to the school by the Digicel Foundation.