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The Malta Independent | Thursday 11 February 2016
Safer Internet Day 2016
9th February is the... Safer Internet Day! Safer Internet Day (SID) is organised by Insafe in February of each year in order to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and young people across the world.
Overwhelmingly young people want the internet to be a positive and inclusive place that respects people’s differences. An online study of over 1,500 13-18-yearolds conducted by ResearchBods found that 94% believe no one should be targeted with online hate, while 93% have seen their friends posting things online
that are supportive, kind or positive about a certain group in the last year, for example, girls, LGBT people, disabled people, or those of a certain race or religion. An estimated 2.1 million young people have done something online to show support to a certain group during the last year. For SID 2016, Insafe chose ‘Play your part for a better internet!’ as a theme, reflecting the fact that we all have a role to play. In UK, schools used the UK Safer Internet Centre’s Education Packs and Safer Internet Day TV films to explore these issues. Later on during the day the UK Safer Internet Centre took a group of young people to Number 10 Downing Street. What is the Safer Internet Day? Safer Internet Day (SID) has become a landmark event in the online safety calendar over the years. The Safer Internet Day
bonds with countries outside the network and invest in a harmonised promotion of the campaign across the world. Around 70 committees started working closely with the Safer Internet
started as an initiative of the EU SafeBorders project in 2004 and was then taken up by the Insafe network as one of its earliest actions in 2005. Safer Internet Day has grown beyond its traditional geographic zone. It is now being celebrated in more than 100 countries worldwide, and across all continents. The Safer Internet Day aims to raise awareness of emerging online issues and chooses a topic reflecting current concerns each year. Safer Internet Centres and Committees Insafe is a European network of Safer Internet Centres (SICs). Every national Centre implements awareness and educational campaigns, runs a helpline, and works closely with youth to ensure an evidencebased, multi-stakeholder approach to creating a better internet.
tivities with children identified as being most at risk. In addition, a resource for parents to encourage them to communicate with and educate their children on online safety will be distributed. What we are doing to help create a better internet The Maltese Safer Internet Centre (SIC) launched a competition for students in post-secondary and tertiary education encouraging them to submit content
However, Safer Internet Day is also celebrated outside Europe. In 2009, the concept of Safer Internet Day Committees was introduced, to strengthen the
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The Malta Independent | Thursday 11 February 2016
created by themselves in order to promote online opportunities. The BeSmartOnline! project combines efforts of national stakeholders, these include: the Malta Communications Authority, the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, the Office of the Commissioner for Children and the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education, working towards the safer use of the internet by children and youth.
Day coordination team, which is based at the heart of the European Union in Brussels. During SID 2016, BeSmartOnline! organised a full day of ac-
The Malta Independent ICT Feature MITA Communications and PR Team Safer Internet Day (SID) has become a landmark event in the online safety calendar over the years. For Safer Internet Day 2016, Insafe chose ‘Play your part for a better internet!’ as a theme, reflecting the fact that we all have a role to play. By 2020, there will be 5.5 billion mobile users, representing 70 percent of the global population, according to Cisco Visual Networking Index™ (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2015
to 2020). The adoption of mobile devices, increased mobile coverage, and demand for mobile content are driving user growth two times faster than the global population over the next five years. All ICT Features are available on www.mita.gov.mt/ictfeature
5.5 billion mobile users by 2020 Since 2000, when the first camera phone was introduced, the number of mobile users has quintupled. By 2020, there will be 5.5 billion mobile users, representing 70 percent of the global population, according to Cisco Visual Networking Index™ (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast (2015 to 2020). The adoption of mobile devices, increased mobile coverage, and demand for mobile content are driving user growth two times faster than the global population over the next five years. This surge of mobile users, smart devices, mobile video and 4G networks will increase mobile data traffic eight-fold over the next five years. Smart mobile devices and connections are projected to represent 72 percent of total mobile devices and connections by 2020—up from 36 percent in 2015. Smart devices are forecasted to generate 98 percent of mobile data traffic by 2020. From an individual device perspective, smartphones are dominating mobile traffic. They will account for 81 percent of total mobile traffic by 2020—up from 76 percent in 2015. The proliferation of mobile phones, including “phablets” (a hybrid blend of smartphone and tablet features), is increasing so rapidly that more people will have mobile phones (5.4 billion) than electricity (5.3 billion), running water (3.5 billion) and cars (2.8 billion) by 2020. Mobile video will have the
nearly six times more traffic per month than non-4G connections by 2020. “With the ever-increasing billions of people and things that are being connected, mobility is the predominant medium that’s enabling today’s global digitization transformation,” said Doug Webster, vice president of service provider marketing, Cisco. “Future mobile innovations in cellular, such as 5G, and Wi-Fi solutions will be needed to further address new scale requirements, security concerns, and user demands. IoT advancements
highest growth rate of any mobile application. Consumer and business users’ demand for higher video resolution, more
bandwidth, and processing speed will increase the use of 4G connected devices. 4G connectivity share is projected to sur-
pass 2G by 2018 and 3G by 2020. 4G will represent more than 70 percent of all mobile traffic, and 4G connections will generate
will continue to fuel tangible benefits for people, businesses, and societies.”
Mobile Data Traffic Projections and Trends
Global Mobile Data Traffic Shows No Signs of Slowing Down By 2020 global mobile data traffic will reach 30.6 exabytes per month—up from 3.7 exabytes in
2015. This being 120X more than all global mobile traffic generated just 10 years ago in 2010, 81 trillion images (e.g., MMS or Instagram)—28 daily images per person on earth for a year, 7 trillion video clips (e.g., YouTube)—more than 2.5 daily video clips per person on earth for a year, It is estimated that by 2020, over 75 percent of the world’s mobile data traffic will be video. Article reproduced from www.newsroom.cisco.com