READING Borough Council has announced that it is set to hold its first ever summit for online safety next week.
On Wednesday, November 20, the event will bring together professionals, guest speakers, and young people to discuss risks people face online and how people can be supported.
It will aim to hear from children about their concerns and understand what adjustments adults, parents, and professionals need to make to how they approach online safety.
It will also explore how to influence local strategic partnerships to better respond to online safety and how to best interact with children in the online space, as well as discuss with children and young people their experience of the online space, such as with gaming, social media, and AI.
Reading’s Young Voices will lead the summit in association with the Community Safety Partnership, which includes Reading Borough Council and Thames Valley Police.
Students from schools across the borough, as well ads those in Wokingham and West Berkshire, will attend to hear from professionals and help advise them on how best to support young people in staying safe online.
Representatives from Ofcom and the Youth Justice Board will be attending, alongside members from the Molly Rose Foundation, Breck Foundation and Ben Kinsella Trust– charities set up by parents after losing children to online grooming, knife crime and exploitation.
Joining them will be Amanda Stephens, whose son Olly lost his life to kniofe crime in 2021, since which she has been a staunch campaigner for better education around the real dangers faced by young people online and on social media.
Ms Stephens will give a keynote speech at the event, which will be opened by Leigh Middleton, the Chief Executive of the National Youth Agency and original member of the Reading Youth Council.
Representatives of Reading’s Community Safety Partnership will also be present, including Reading Borough Council, Thames Valley Police, The Probation Service, Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service, the BOB Integrated Care System, Brighter Futures for Children, and Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust.
Ms Stephens said ahead of the event: “I am so excited to be involved in a groundbreaking event here in our home town.
“Reading is taking seriously the risk to our children through our lack of understanding of the reality they live in on and offline.”
Karen Rowland, Lead Councillor for Environmental Services and Community Safety and Chair of the Reading Community Safety Partnership, said:
“We are exceedingly proud to be hosting this pioneering event at Reading Town Hall on Wednesday 20 November. It is the aspiration of the event to allow professionals who work with children and make decisions about them to understand the risks – as told by children themselves – about their online experiences, and identify the opportunities to improve relationships and the help and protection adults can offer them”.
Carly Newman, Operations and Relationships Manager at No5 Young People who leads Young Voices, added:
“Young Voices has come together to create meaningful opportunities for children and young people to have their voices heard and be involved in strategy and decision making. All too often decision makers and leaders do not take account of what young people have to say or think about services provided to them.
“Young people’s experience of crime and the support they receive when they are victims has been raised by our Young Voices Group with the Reading Community Safety Partnership – online safety is a theme that has been highlighted and that they are now taking forward at their first summit, with more than 13 schools attending along with representatives of agencies from across the local area.”
The inaugural Online Safety Summit takes place at Reading Town Hall on Wednesday, November 20.
