More than 1,000 boys of St George’s College were educated on internet safety and the dangers of phishing during the school’s implementation of the Flow Foundation’s Connected and Protected Safer Internet School Grant (SISG) project. Phishing is a common cybercrime where impersonation is used to trick persons into revealing sensitive information.

St George’s College hosted a series of panel discussions and a creative arts competition which targeted boys from grades 7 to 10. The panel discussions surrounded the broad theme of ‘Online Safety: Do’s & Don’ts, Netiquette, Phishing and Espionage’. Cyberbullying and its effects were also a recurring topic throughout all the presentations.

The panel discussions revealed that several students had fallen victim to phishing which resulted in them losing access to their social media and email accounts. Post panel one-on-one discussions with students also revealed that several students who had been cyberbullied felt pressured to remain silent for fear of being labelled an informer.

Interestingly, Information Technology teacher, Carlisle Brown, said he noticed a change in the weeks after the school hosted its first intervention before the boys went on holidays.

“We are already seeing the positive effects with the reduction of posts with offensive content. Additionally, we are seeing fewer videos of classmates emerging which would have required intervention by the school,” stated Brown.

In addition to the impactful panel discussions, the students also highlighted online safety artistically through a Poetry & Song Competition. Brown explained that the winners from Grades 7 -10 will be used as student ambassadors in the new school year to reinforce good online safety habits. This, he said, will help to mitigate the loss of awareness students might experience during the summer and to emphasize the need for continuous digital vigilance.

This sentiment was echoed by Principal of St George’s College, Margaret Campbell.

“Twenty-first century students are immersed in a digital world and students are often unaware of the potential dangers of the digital space, so we are proud to have our student leaders add their voices in guiding their peers towards safer use of the internet,” said Campbell.

“Throughout the academic year, we have been deliberate about raising students’ awareness on appropriate internet use, digital footprint, and the importance of internet safety.”

Meanwhile, LeVaughn Flynn, Flow’s Public Relations Manager, commended the administration of St George’s College for its commitment to encouraging safer internet habits among its school community.

“It was great to see the team at St George’s College working to reinforce the importance of internet safety. This is a continuous process that repetition and variety for the message of online safety to get through at a broad level. Each school has had their unique way of promoting internet safety and I want to commend

St George’s College for helping to make our first year a successful one,” said Flynn.

Six schools participated in this year’s inaugural SISG: St Hugh’s, Wolmer’s Girls, Cumberland High, St. George’s College, Morant Bay High and Kingston Technical High. The schools were chosen by a multi-partner panel following a review of their project proposals. Each school received up to $250,000 to activate their project.

The SISG is part of the wider Connected and Protected online safety campaign that also includes a Youth Summit, Senior’s Forum and the Safer Internet Monitor Programme for primary schools.