For the 2nd year running, The Diana Award and Penguin Random House, have partnered to organise Kindness Day on the 10th June 2016.
Inspired by the bestselling novel Wonder, which highlights to readers the importance of being kind and celebrating our differences, Kindness Day is a chance for everyone to join together to help make the world a kinder place.
At Childnet we believe that the internet should be a positive place for everyone. That’s why Kindness Day is great opportunity to celebrate the wonderful kind things we can all do to make the internet a better place!
For Safer Internet Day in February 2016 we, as part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, used the day to inspire a kind, respectful and inclusive internet, and help raise awareness about the issue of online hate.
The UK Safer Internet Centre launched the Creating a Better Internet for All report, a study of children’s experiences of online empowerment and online hate.
The survey revealed young people’s experiences online – both positive and negative, finding that 94% of young people believe no one should be targeted with online hate, while 93% have seen their friends posting things online that are supportive, kind or positive about a certain group in the last year, for example, girls, LGBT people, disabled people, or those of a certain race or religion.
An estimated 2.1 million young people said they had done something online to show support to a certain group in the last year. The report includes examples from young people:
As part of the study young people also gave their advice for how to create a kinder internet:
We know that young people play an important role in promoting kindness both online and offline and that’s why we’re encouraging all schools to get involved in Kindness Day on the 10th June. Why not:
- Create a Kindness Day pledge: For Kindness Day the Diana Award are inviting everyone to create their own #KindnessDay Pledge. The pledge is a random act of kindness you will do on Kindness Day, it only take a few minutes to make and you can do it online here.
- Sign up to the Kindness Day Thunderclap: Show your support for Kindness Day online by signing up to our Thunderclap.
- Get your school involved by downloading the school’s activity pack: The pack is full of extracts and resources from Wonder and activities which you can run in your school to celebrate #KindnessDay.
For more ideas about how you can get involved in Kindness Day visit:http://www.antibullyingpro.com/kindnessday2016
