Vodafone Malta has constantly sought to be a responsible global company with a strong emphasis on contributing positively towards the local environment.  The last few years have shown a huge surge in data usage on mobile devices and this comes together with a responsibility of educating and creating an awareness of the benefits of the use of technology but also the dangers of its misuse, particularly to children who are mostly vulnerable in this area.  This was the message shouted out at the launch of the ibrowsesafely campaign, launched over the weekend at the Pembroke Athleta Sports Club run.

“Online safety is an ever important topic which is never redundant as the years go by but is rather adapted to the changing technologies,” said Amanda Nelson, CEO at Vodafone Malta during her speech at the launch. “With this in mind, we are launching a website, together with a Facebook page solely dedicated to the ibrowsesafely campaign, were parents, grandparents and educators can stay updated with relevant information on how to keep their children safe online. We plan to keep building on this resource to include also online safety tips for adults and advice on different areas.  We are great believers in ensuring the internet is a positive experience for our users.  The trend is moving towards more data usage in every way possible – the rules for safe usage will always be important.”

The ibrowsesafely campaign brought by Vodafone Malta will support the BeSmartOnline campaign run by the Malta Communications Authority. The website www.ibrowsesafely.com.mt will be the first online resource in Maltese and in English in Malta that ensures that all sections of the populations have access to the information.  Resources will include information, statistics, a live blog by experts on all related subjects including a special section on persons with disability, blog entries by persons with disabilities, parents of children with disabilities as well as teenagers, speech and language pathologists and a host of others. The website will also include plug and play presentations that can be used in schools on issues related to safety as well as a free application download for better safe online practices.

“Vodafone believe that with the right education, parents, grandparents and educators can take informed decisions as to the balance that they would like to create with regards to their children’s online presence,” said Veronica Montanaro, the key expert for the campaign. She also mentioned how excited everyone is about the campaign and how passionate everyone is about the subject.