Children face more risks and dangers online than ever before, yet they aren't taught the relevant online safety skills in schools, says Dean McCoubrey, founder of MySociaLife.

To inform schools of this reality, the social media educators have announced a first for South Africa — the MySociaLife Digital Life Skills Summit for Schools — equipping teachers with the knowledge and skills they need to keep their students safer online, so they can explore and excel in a competitive decade.

The two-hour mini-summit shared five presentations on where students and schools currently find themselves and how they can chart a new path towards 'digital citizenship'. Insights also stemmed from two GenZ speakers.

Educators were provided with real insights on how not to get left behind, which ultimately risks a school's reputation. Teachers learnt how to shape a more aware digital culture that presents the spectrum of challenges that come with an explosive world of:
  • learning
  • messaging and communication
  • browsing
  • gaming, and
  • entertainment.

McCoubrey adds, "Result is the development of critical thinking online, greater online safety awareness and real digital empowerment for their students."

Children are being exposed to more and more online, post-Covid. Recently, a compromising video of a minor was circulating on social media in South Africa. While the Film and Publication Board (FBP) announced that they're trying to take the video down, it's already entered schools through the phones of many South African children, exposing them to explicit content.

Yet, according to a survey conducted by Dell, 37% of Gen Z participants felt that school education did not equip them with the digital life skills needed in this day and age.

"This is one of the biggest problems we faced on Safer Internet Day in South Africa a few weeks ago — very little exposure to these issues. In our country, we are failing children in online safety, and we're failing them in educating them for the future," McCoubrey adds.

"The great obstacle is getting children to relate and buy-in. So we recently launched a world-first social media current affairs show called OneLife that's specifically designed to help teens successfully navigate the digital world they live in. What's OneLife's secret? An incredible GenZ team of six individuals under the age of 23 that creates and presents the content on screen," McCoubrey concludes.

For more information, visit www.mysocialife.com. You can also follow MySocialLife on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.