#girltakover: Facebook headquarters visit

Safer Internet Day Year 8 excursion

On Tuesday 7th February, the two Year 8 captains, as well as Tahlia and Grace, our Year 7 2016 leaders, (along with representatives from schools all across Victoria) had the opportunity to go to the new Facebook Melbourne Headquarters and meet with Project Rock-it, Plan International and Sticks 'n' Stones for a Safer Internet Day (SID) event: #girltakeover.

We were introduced to the day by Lucy and Rosie Thomas, the cofounders of Project Rock-it. They talked to us about deletable media and how once you send something you have no control over what happens with it. We were then spoken to by the safety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant. Julie told us about how important it is to report inappropriate behaviour online and that we shouldn't convey a fake online image and that we should always be ourselves online so we don't mislead anyone. We were then spoken to by Mia, representative from Facebook and Instagram. She talked to us about new things that Facebook are planning to do to help make social media a safer and more accessible place. We then played a game to learn about how interpretation of a picture or message can depend on the person viewing it and how as things (stories, photos) get passed along they can change.

Later on in the day we split into groups and rotated between Stick 'n' Stones and Plan International. With Sticks 'n' Stones we looked at the cyber safety tips already online and reviewed whether or not they were helpful. We gave suggestions to the representatives of what would actually be helpful tips. With Plan International we talked about how we can teach parents and adults about how to use social media and showing them that it's not ALL bad. We then re-grouped and talked about what we'd discussed. We all enjoyed the day and all learnt a lot more about using social media as a tool, not a weapon.

Hannah (8J) & Eve (8K)

Year 8 Captains 2017