Head Girl and Deputy Head Girl Celine and Yoma were invited to speak at a CyberSafe Scotland event to share their thoughts on keeping girls safe online:
"Yoma and myself were invited to speak at a CyberSafe Scotland event to launch the Respected and Safe programme. This organisation is one of great importance within the Aberdeen community which keeps young people, specifically girls, safe online. Through the Respected and Safe programme, Cybersafe Scotland works closely with partner schools through targeted and universal support for young girls and offers training and support for parents, teachers, senior leadership teams and other school staff.
We were inspired to become further involved having experienced a workshop delivered by the programme leaders as part of our VI Senior enrichment programme. We were delighted on Monday night to be able to take an active role in the launch where we had the opportunity to to answer questions about the experiences of girls online. We spoke about the rapid way in which online misogyny and harassment has developed since we were in junior school and shared our thoughts on some of the key issues girls are faced with daily on social media, the internet and other platforms.
A key point that resonated with us was the importance of not placing blame on anyone who has had a negative experience online; we both agreed that it was important to ensure girls feel safe to talk about their encounters free from blame or criticism. We are grateful for the opportunity to speak about an issue we are both so passionate about to an audience of professionals that cared equally as much as we did. We are looking forward to continuing our involvement and offering our support to the incredible work that Cybersafe Scotland are doing to keep girls in our city safe and to provide safe spaces to share experiences."
Celine (VI Senior)