Facebook launches £1m partnership with anti-bullying charities

Facebook is offering to train digital safety ambassadors in every UK secondary school through a new £1m partnership with The Diana Award and Childnet International. The partnership will enable the charities to scale their existing programmes, which currently see digital safety ambassadors in around half of the UK’s 4,500 secondary schools. According to The Diana Award, the commitment could see tens of thousands of pupils trained as Digital Leaders through Childnet International, or as Anti-Bullying Ambassadors for online and offline bullying through The Diana Award, and provided with access to face-to-face training, dedicated online resources and forums. To show the value of the schools programmes, Facebook, Childnet International and The Diana Award have collaborated with young people to create ‘House of Us’ in London. It offers participants the chance to immerse themselves in some of the online safety challenges young people can face and explore the positive difference they can make when they tackle these issues together. Exhibits include an audio maze evoking feelings of being bullied, an interactive light room that responds to positive sentiment and a challenge using bullying and banter scenarios to highlight the fine line between these behaviours. School children from across the UK participated in ‘House of Us’ earlier this week, and their input and feedback will be used to shape future ideas for how the schools programmes can address the online challenges children face. Antigone Davis, Head of Global Safety Policy at Facebook said: “This partnership is the next step in our ongoing effort to help young people build safe and supportive communities. By offering trained digital safety ambassadors to every UK secondary school we are now taking this commitment offline too.” Tessy Ojo, CEO of The Diana Award, said: “Facebook’s support will enable us to upscale our work empowering 20,000 more young people to stand up to all forms of bullying and protect their peers over the next two years. We know that what happens offline often extends to young people’s online world, this is why we are proud to partner with Facebook, creating a community of young people who will help shape the behaviour and attitude of their peers; as well as take responsibility for the well-being of their peers. We know that with our support, these young Anti-Bullying Ambassadors have the power to close the empathy gap and encourage positive behaviour choices online and offline.” Facebook has supported the Childnet Digital Leaders Programme since 2015, but has been working with Childnet International since 2009. Facebook has also supported The Diana Award since 2010. As part of their partnership, Facebook supports The Diana Award in training its ‘Anti-Bullying Ambassadors’ in schools across the UK, and also supports the charity in the production of national events during UK Anti-Bullying Week where the Facebook safety team trains over 500 young people and teachers on safety on Facebook.

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