Safer Internet Day 2027 (February 9): What It Is and a 30-Minute Online Safety Checkup

Safer Internet Day is held every year on the second Tuesday of February; the next one is Tuesday, February 9, 2027. It began in Europe in 2004 and is now marked in more than 180 countries, with the US events led by the nonprofit ConnectSafely under the global slogan Together for a better internet. Schools, families and companies use the day to talk about online safety, kindness and digital wellbeing. The most useful way to mark it at home is a short checkup: turn on automatic updates, use a password manager and two-step verification or passkeys, learn to spot phishing and scams, review privacy settings and app permissions, set up family controls for children, and agree on screen time habits. This page explains the day and walks through a 30-minute checkup anyone can do.

Ethan's niece came home from school one February with a worksheet titled Safer Internet Day and a list of questions for her family. Did everyone in the house use a different password for each account? Did the family computer install updates on its own? Did anyone know what to do if a stranger messaged her? Ethan, who thought of himself as the family's tech person, realized he could not answer half of them. That weekend, he and Jake turned the worksheet into a checklist and went through every device in the house. It took an afternoon. They found two accounts sharing an old password, a tablet that had not updated in a year and a game chat open to strangers. This page is the checklist they used, with the background on the day itself.

What Safer Internet Day is

Safer Internet Day is an annual awareness day about using the internet safely, responsibly and kindly, especially for children and young people. It started in 2004 as an initiative of the European Union's SafeBorders project and was taken up by the Insafe network of European safer internet centers. Over two decades it spread worldwide, and it is now marked in more than 180 countries and territories by schools, charities, governments, technology companies and families.

Each country runs its own events. In the United States, the nonprofit ConnectSafely is the official host, organizing a national event, webinars and resources for schools and families. In the United Kingdom, the national safer internet center leads, and in Australia, the eSafety Commissioner. The shared global slogan is Together for a better internet, and many countries choose a theme each year. In 2026, US events focused on generative AI, media literacy and critical thinking, and civility online. For 2027, the UK theme is Reflect on tech, exploring digital wellbeing and our relationship with technology.

The day is less about fear and more about habits and conversations. It encourages young people to share what they experience online, parents and teachers to listen, and everyone to take small practical steps that make accounts and devices harder to misuse.

Part of the day's value is its reach. Because schools, companies and governments take part on the same day, a child may hear the same message at school, see it on a social app and bring home a worksheet, which makes it more likely the family actually talks about it.

How the day grew

The first Safer Internet Day in 2004 was marked mainly in Europe, at a time when most children went online from a family computer and the main concerns were chat rooms and inappropriate websites. As smartphones, social media, online games and now AI tools became part of everyday life, the day's topics widened to include cyberbullying, privacy, misinformation, wellbeing and scams. Participation grew to more than 180 countries.

The United States joined formally in the 2010s, with ConnectSafely becoming the official US host. Today, technology companies, schools, libraries and government agencies take part, and the day reaches millions of young people through lessons and events each February.

Its message has stayed constant through all those changes: safety online is shared work.

When Safer Internet Day is

Safer Internet Day falls on the second Tuesday of February each year. Recent and upcoming dates are listed below, so schools and workplaces can plan ahead.

Many schools spread activities across the whole week, and organizations often hold events or webinars in the days around it. The official national websites publish resources a few weeks before, which is the best time for teachers to plan lessons.

Mark the date early so lessons and family plans are ready in time.

A 30-minute online safety checkup

The most practical way to mark the day is to check the basics on every device and account you rely on. This order puts the biggest protections first:

1. Updates: make sure phones, computers, tablets and browsers install updates automatically, and install anything waiting.
2. Passwords: make sure important accounts each have a unique password, ideally stored in a password manager.
3. Two-step sign-in: turn on two-step verification or passkeys for email, banking, social media and shopping accounts.
4. Recovery: check the recovery email and phone number on your main accounts are current.
5. Privacy: review privacy settings and app permissions on phones and social accounts.
6. Backups: confirm photos and important files are backed up somewhere other than the device.
7. Family: review controls and settings on children's devices and talk about what they do online.
8. Scams: agree as a household on how to check suspicious messages before acting.

Thirty minutes covers the first four for one person. A family with several devices may take an afternoon, as Ethan's did, but each step only needs doing once and then checking yearly. Safer Internet Day is a good annual reminder for that yearly check.

Make it a yearly habit

The value of Safer Internet Day comes from repetition. Devices change, children get older, new apps arrive and old accounts are forgotten. A yearly checkup each February catches what has drifted: a new tablet without family controls, a teenager who now needs more independence, a parent who has a new phone without two-step sign-in, an old account still using a breached password. Keep a short list of what you checked and changed, so next year starts from where you left off.

Between checkups, a few moments matter: setting up any new device, a child getting their first phone or social account, a relative's new smartphone, and any news of a breach at a service you use. Treat each as a mini checkup, running through updates, passwords, two-step sign-in and privacy for that device or account.

A calendar reminder on the second Tuesday of February makes it automatic.

Step 1: updates

Updates fix security flaws that attackers already know about, so they are the single most important protection on any device. Phones usually update automatically; check Settings > General > Software Update on iPhone and Settings > System > Software update or Security on Android. On Windows, open Settings > Windows Update; on a Mac, System Settings > General > Software Update. Turn on automatic app updates in the Play Store and App Store.

Browsers deserve their own check, since they face the internet directly; our guide to updating Chrome and checking your version covers the most popular one. Do not forget routers, smart TVs, game consoles and smart home devices, which update less often and are easy to overlook. A device that no longer receives updates, such as an old phone or a PC on an unsupported system, should not be used for banking or email.

For a family, the quickest way to check is to sit down with every device on one table. It is surprising how often one forgotten tablet or old laptop turns out to be months behind, and that one device is often the one children use most.

Step 2: passwords and password managers

Reused passwords are the main way accounts get taken over. When one website is breached, criminals try the stolen email and password combinations on other sites, a technique called credential stuffing, and any account using the same password falls. The defense is a unique password for every important account, which in practice means a password manager. Managers built into browsers and phones, such as Google Password Manager, Apple Passwords and Microsoft Edge's manager, are free and easy; dedicated managers add features such as sharing between family members.

Start with the accounts that matter most: email, because it can reset everything else; banking and payment accounts; social media; and shopping accounts with saved cards. Change any password that is reused or weak. If you receive a notice that a service has reset your password after a breach, our guide to what to do after a password reset or breach walks through the steps. Headlines about billions of leaked passwords are often less dramatic than they sound; our page on the 16 billion passwords story explains how to read them.

A family password manager with shared folders also solves the problem of household accounts, such as streaming services and utilities, whose passwords otherwise end up on sticky notes or in group chats.

Step 3: two-step verification and passkeys

Two-step verification, also called two-factor or multi-factor authentication, means that a stolen password is not enough to sign in; the attacker also needs a second proof, such as a code from an app, a prompt on your phone or a security key. It stops the large majority of account takeovers. Turn it on in the security settings of each important account, preferring an authenticator app or phone prompt over text message codes where offered, since text messages can be intercepted through SIM swapping.

Passkeys go further. A passkey replaces the password with a cryptographic key stored on your phone or computer, unlocked with your fingerprint, face or PIN. It cannot be guessed, reused or typed into a fake website, which makes it resistant to phishing. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, PayPal and many others support passkeys. When a site offers to create one, accepting is usually the safest choice.

Never share a sign-in code with anyone who contacts you, however convincing. Legitimate companies never ask for the codes they send you. A request for a code is almost always a scam in progress.

If you are worried about losing your phone, set up more than one second factor, such as an authenticator app on a second device, a hardware security key or printed backup codes, so you are never locked out by losing one.

Step 4: account recovery details

If you lose your phone or forget a password, recovery options decide whether you can get back into your accounts, and attackers sometimes target them to take over accounts. Check the recovery email address and phone number on your main email, Apple, Google and Microsoft accounts and update any that are old, such as a former work email or a phone number you no longer have. Save backup codes for two-step verification somewhere safe, such as a password manager or a printed sheet in a drawer.

Some services let you add a trusted contact or legacy contact who can help recover an account or access it if something happens to you. Apple, Google and Facebook all offer versions of this. Setting it up for a spouse or adult child takes a few minutes and avoids difficult problems later.

Write down where recovery details and backup codes are kept, so a spouse or adult child can find them in an emergency.

Spotting scams and phishing

Most online harm to ordinary people now comes from scams rather than technical hacking: fake messages that trick people into giving away passwords, codes, money or remote access. They arrive by email, text, social media, phone calls and messaging apps, and increasingly use AI to sound natural or imitate voices. The common signs are urgency, such as an account about to be closed or a package held; a request to click a link, call a number or install something; requests for codes, passwords or payment by gift card, wire transfer or cryptocurrency; and offers too good to be true.

The habit that defeats nearly all of them is to slow down and verify through a channel you choose. If a message claims to be from your bank, open the bank's app or call the number on your card, not the one in the message. If a relative messages from a new number asking for money, call their old number. Never install software or allow remote access because someone contacted you. Newer tricks ask you to copy and paste a command to fix a problem or prove you are human; our guide to the fake CAPTCHA ClickFix scam explains why that is always a trap.

If you clicked a scam link or shared details

1. Stop and disconnect: close the page, and if you installed anything or allowed remote access, disconnect the device from the internet.
2. Change the password of any account whose details you entered, from a different, trusted device, and any account that used the same password.
3. Turn on two-step verification for those accounts if it was not already on, and sign out of all other sessions from the account's security page.
4. If you shared card or bank details, call your bank using the number on your card and ask them to block the card and watch for fraud.
5. Run a full scan with your security software, and remove any remote access program a scammer asked you to install.
6. Report the scam, in the US to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and to the platform where it reached you.
7. Tell family and friends if the scam used your account to message them.

Acting within minutes makes a big difference, especially with banks, which can often stop payments that have not yet cleared. Do not let embarrassment delay you; scams catch careful, intelligent people every day.

Keep a note of what happened, including dates, amounts and the scammer's contact details, since banks and police will ask for it.

Step 4: privacy settings and app permissions

Privacy settings decide who can see what you share and how much data apps collect. On social media, review who can see your posts, find you by phone number or email, tag you and send you messages. On phones, review app permissions for location, camera, microphone, contacts and photos in Settings > Privacy on iPhone or Settings > Security & privacy > Permission manager on Android, and remove permissions apps do not need. Delete apps you no longer use.

On Windows, our guide to Windows privacy settings to change covers diagnostic data, advertising ID and app permissions. Security software itself deserves a look; our page on when security software sells data explains why to check what your antivirus collects. Location sharing in family apps and maps is useful, but review who can see it from time to time.

Oversharing on social media

Small details in posts add up. A first day of school photo shows the school's name, a vacation post tells people your home is empty, a birthday post reveals a date of birth used in security questions, and a photo of a new car or front door can show a license plate or house number. Children's photos shared publicly can be copied and reused without permission.

Before posting, ask who can see it and what it reveals. Share trips after returning, keep accounts private if you mainly share with family and friends, and turn off location tagging on photos. Agree within the family on what can be shared about children, and respect older children's wishes about photos of themselves.

Old posts matter too. Reviewing and archiving years-old public posts, especially ones with children, school names or addresses, is a worthwhile part of an annual checkup.

Step 6: backups

Backups protect against more than hardware failure. Ransomware, accidental deletion, lost phones and account lockouts can all destroy photos and documents, and a backup is the only reliable way to get them back. Phones can back up automatically to iCloud or Google; computers can use OneDrive, iCloud, Google Drive or an external drive with File History or Time Machine. Check that backups are actually running and that you can open a restored file.

For irreplaceable files, such as family photos, keep at least two copies in different places, for example in the cloud and on an external drive kept at home. That way, a problem with one service or device does not take everything with it.

Ransomware has made offline backups important again: a drive that is unplugged after each backup cannot be encrypted by malware running on the PC.

Families and children

For children, technical controls and conversations work best together. Set up family controls on each device: Family Link for Android and Chromebooks, Screen Time and Family Sharing for iPhone and iPad, and Microsoft Family Safety for Windows and Xbox. These let parents approve apps, set age-appropriate content filters, schedule downtime and see screen time. Game consoles and many games have their own settings for who can chat or send friend requests.

Social platforms have added teen protections in recent years, such as private accounts by default, limits on messages from strangers and parental supervision tools; our guide to Meta's teen limits on Instagram covers one example, and our page on limiting YouTube Shorts and screen time covers another. The most important protection, though, is a child who knows they can tell a trusted adult about anything that worries them online without losing their device as punishment. Safer Internet Day resources for families focus on exactly those conversations.

Review the settings as children grow. Controls that suit an eight-year-old frustrate a fourteen-year-old, and loosening them step by step, with conversation, builds the judgment teens need when the controls eventually go.

Questions to talk about with children

Conversations work better than lectures, and Safer Internet Day gives a natural reason to start one. Ask what apps and games they enjoy most and why. Ask whether anything online has ever made them feel uncomfortable, scared or upset, and what they did. Ask whether they know how to block and report someone. Ask who they would tell if a stranger asked for photos or personal information, or asked them to keep a secret. Ask what they think is true or fake online, and how they can tell.

Listen more than you speak, and avoid reacting with alarm, which teaches children not to share. Agree on a few family rules together, such as no sharing location with strangers, asking before downloading new apps, and devices out of bedrooms at night for younger children. Revisit them as children grow, giving more independence with age.

Sextortion: what teens and parents need to know

One of the most serious risks for teens online is sextortion, where someone, often posing as a young person, persuades a teen to send intimate images and then threatens to share them unless the teen pays money or sends more. Criminal groups run these schemes at scale, and they target boys as well as girls. The pressure is intense and fast, and some victims have come to great harm.

Teens need to hear clearly, in advance, that if this happens it is not their fault, they will not be in trouble, and they should tell a trusted adult right away. They should stop responding, not pay, keep evidence such as usernames and screenshots, and block the account. In the US, reports can go to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline, and its free Take It Down service helps remove or block intimate images of minors from participating platforms. Talking about this before it happens is one of the most protective things a parent can do.

Parents should also avoid blame if it happens; a calm, supportive response is what keeps teens safe.

Kindness online and cyberbullying

Safer Internet Day has always been as much about how people treat each other online as about technical safety. Cyberbullying can follow children home through their phones, and it often happens in group chats and games adults never see. Teach children to block and report people who are unkind, to save screenshots as evidence, and to tell a trusted adult. Encourage them to support friends who are targeted rather than joining in or staying silent.

Adults can model kindness too: thinking before posting, not sharing embarrassing photos of others, and disagreeing respectfully. Schools have policies for bullying that happens online between students, so involve the school if the bullying involves classmates. If threats or sexual content are involved, report to the platform and, where appropriate, to the police.

Children are more likely to report bullying when they trust that adults will respond calmly and will not simply take their devices away.

Generative AI and Safer Internet Day

Generative AI was a major focus of US Safer Internet Day events in 2026, and it raises new questions for families and schools. AI chatbots can help with homework and creativity, but they can also give wrong answers confidently, and some young people use AI companions for emotional support in ways that worry parents and experts. AI tools can create realistic fake images and videos, including harmful fake images of real people, and scammers use AI to clone voices and write convincing messages.

Practical steps help. Teach children that AI can be wrong and to check important facts elsewhere. Use AI tools' own age settings and family features where available. Agree that nobody in the family shares photos of others with AI apps without permission. Set up a family code word that a relative must give if they call asking for urgent help, which defeats voice-cloning scams. And talk about how to recognize fake images and videos, while accepting that they are getting harder to spot.

Schools increasingly set their own rules for AI in homework, so ask what your child's school allows and support those rules at home.

Misinformation and media literacy

Knowing what to believe online is a safety skill. False stories, edited images and fake videos spread quickly, especially around elections, disasters and health topics. Simple habits help: check who published something and whether established news organizations report it too, look for the original source of a quote or image, be wary of posts designed to make you angry or afraid, and pause before sharing.

For children, media literacy can be playful: compare two stories about the same event, try a reverse image search on a viral photo, or discuss why an advert or influencer post is trying to persuade them. These skills protect against scams as well as misinformation, since both rely on people acting before thinking.

A useful family rule is that anything shocking gets a second source before it gets shared. It slows the spread of false stories and gives everyone a moment to think.

Gaming safety

Online games are where many children first talk to strangers. Most consoles and game platforms let parents limit chat to friends, require approval for friend requests, set spending limits and control which games can be played by age rating. Set these up on each console and in each game's own settings, and use family accounts on Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo platforms.

Talk about in-game purchases and scams, such as offers of free currency or items in exchange for account details, which are common. Agree that children ask before spending money, and keep payment cards off children's accounts or protected by a parent's approval.

Voice chat deserves its own setting check, because it is harder to monitor than text and some games turn it on by default for everyone.

Safety away from home

Phones and laptops travel, so safety habits need to travel too. Public Wi-Fi in cafes, airports and hotels is much safer than it used to be because most sites and apps encrypt their traffic, but fake hotspots and suspicious login pages still catch people out; our guide to public Wi-Fi safety covers what to check. Keep Bluetooth sharing features set to contacts only in crowded places, as our page on Bluetooth security flaws explains.

Turn on the find-my-device feature on phones and laptops, set a strong screen lock, and know how to erase a lost device remotely. Children's phones especially should have a lock screen and location sharing with parents, and children should know never to unlock their phone for a stranger.

Smart home and connected devices

Smart speakers, cameras, doorbells, TVs, thermostats and toys are part of many homes, and each connects to the internet. Check that each uses a strong, unique password and two-step verification on its account, receives updates, and has privacy settings you are comfortable with, such as whether recordings are saved. Change default passwords on routers and devices that came with them, and keep the router's firmware updated.

Indoor cameras deserve particular care: place them thoughtfully, use the privacy shutter or schedules when the family is home if available, and make sure only household members have access to the app. When selling or giving away a smart device, reset it to factory settings and remove it from your account.

A separate guest Wi-Fi network for smart devices keeps them apart from computers and phones, which limits the damage if one of them is ever compromised.

Shopping and paying safely

Online shopping scams include fake stores with prices that are too good to be true, sellers on marketplaces who ask you to pay outside the platform, and fake order or delivery messages. Buy from retailers you know or that have a long track record and independent reviews, pay with a credit card or a payment service that offers buyer protection rather than bank transfers or gift cards, and keep transactions inside marketplace platforms.

Turn on transaction alerts in your banking app so you see every charge as it happens, and check statements monthly. Virtual card numbers, offered by some banks and payment services, let you shop online without exposing your main card number, which helps if a store is breached later.

During busy shopping seasons, scam stores and fake delivery texts increase sharply, so extra care in November and December pays off.

Digital wellbeing

The UK theme for 2027, reflecting on our relationship with technology, points to a part of online safety that is easy to overlook: how much time we spend online and how it makes us feel. Phones and computers have tools to help, such as screen time reports, app limits, focus modes and bedtime settings. Using them is less about restriction and more about noticing patterns, such as late-night scrolling or apps that leave you feeling worse.

Families can set shared habits: no phones at meals, devices charging outside bedrooms, and screen-free time on weekends. Adults following the same rules makes them fairer and more effective. The goal is technology that serves people, not the other way around.

Screen time reports are most useful as a starting point for conversation rather than a scorecard, especially with teens, who respond better to agreed goals than imposed limits.

Ideas for schools and workplaces

Schools mark Safer Internet Day with assemblies, lessons and student-led activities. The official national sites publish free lesson plans for different ages, covering topics such as kindness online, spotting misinformation, privacy and gaming safety. Activities that work well include having older students teach younger ones, creating posters or short videos about online kindness, role-playing how to respond to unkind messages, and sending home a short family checklist like the one on this page.

Workplaces can use the day for a short security refresher: a phishing awareness session, a reminder to turn on two-step verification for work and personal accounts, or a lunchtime talk on helping family members stay safe online. Many employees appreciate help protecting their families, and good habits at home carry over to work.

Simple activities to do at home

Families can mark the day in small ways that stick. Do the checkup together, letting children help with their own devices so they understand why each setting matters. Play a scam spotting game, where each person brings a real or made-up message and the others guess whether it is genuine. Make a family tech agreement covering screen time, where devices charge at night, which apps need permission and what to do if something online feels wrong, and put it on the fridge.

For younger children, picture books and short videos from the official sites introduce ideas such as private information and asking for help. For teens, ask them to teach you something, such as the privacy settings of an app they use; teens often know more than adults expect, and being the expert makes them more likely to come to you when they need help.

Keep it light and short; twenty minutes of shared activity does more than an hour-long lecture nobody remembers.

Helping older relatives

Older adults are frequent targets of scams, especially tech support, romance, investment and impersonation scams, and they often lose larger sums. Safer Internet Day is a good prompt to help an older relative with their own checkup: updates on, a password manager or at least unique passwords for email and banking, two-step sign-in set up with a trusted family member as a backup contact, and a clear rule never to allow remote access or buy gift cards because someone asked.

Agree on a simple process for anything suspicious: hang up or close the message, then call a family member before doing anything. Many banks let customers add a trusted contact who can be reached if the bank suspects fraud. Setting that up takes minutes and can stop a large loss.

Write the process on a card by the phone or computer. In a moment of panic, which is exactly what scammers create, a written rule is easier to follow than a remembered conversation.

What this page said in 2020

The original version of this page, from February 2020, marked Safer Internet Day 2020 with a short list of tips for protecting yourself online. Those tips still hold. This rewrite explains the day itself, lists upcoming dates, and expands the tips into a complete checkup covering updates, passwords, two-step verification and passkeys, scams, privacy, families, generative AI and older relatives.

Many of the 2020 tips, such as strong passwords and caution with links, remain the foundation. What has changed is the toolkit: passkeys, better family controls, and new risks from generative AI that did not exist when the first version was written.

Safer Internet Day: frequently asked questions

Ethan's niece handed in her worksheet with every question answered. The family's accounts now have their own passwords in a shared manager, the old tablet updates itself, the game chat is limited to friends, and there is a family code word on a note on the fridge. Ethan has set a reminder for next February to do it all again, which he expects to take twenty minutes this time.

Revision note. Written October 3, 2026, rewriting our Safer Internet Day 2020 tips into a complete guide to the day and a yearly online safety checkup for individuals, families, schools and workplaces. May your passwords be unique and your conversations open.