Digital Wellness: Promoting safe spaces for a #BetterToday

As provider of enabling access to the internet and technology, Smart plays a vital role in advocating for internet safety and cybersecurity to ensure that Filipinos, especially the youth, have access not only to quality and affordable connectivity but also that they are able to have a safe and secure digital experience.  

Children and the youth, as active users of the internet and digital technology, are most vulnerable and susceptible to online threats and predators therefore Smart is committed to upholding the rights of children and keeping them safe in the digital environment, as underscored in its pioneering Child Safeguarding Policy.  

Smart and its mother company  PLDT have invested in a Child Protection Platform that detects, responds, and prevents end-user access to online child sexual abuse materials 24 by 7. It also actively engages local and global partners and participates in community programs to manage its impact among the youth and strive to create positive value for them.  

Under its Digital Wellness advocacy, Smart promotes internet safety by spreading awareness; child protection by strengthening local community ecosystems that uphold and protect the rights of children both online and offline; and mental wellness by spreading awareness on mental health and capacitating local communities to respond to needs, especially of the youth, to enable a safer and kinder online space for all.

#CyberSmart

• An awareness program to help public safeguard their digital lives with topics on online child safety, data privacy and security, computer and mobile devices protection, spotting and combating fake news, and responsible use of social media. 

#SaferKidsPH

• A community-based program that helps strengthen the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children through policy making, technology, and capacity-building  

Better Today Conversations

• An awareness program that provides safe spaces for the youth to dialogue about their mental health and wellbeing  

Better Today Psychological First Aid

• A community-based program that trains communities to provide first-aid, non-intrusive care to those who are mentally distressed 

Quick Figures (to date): 

 Internet Safety 

• Reached 41,021 participants via #CyberSmart internet safety awareness program
• Over 576k socmed reach for Safer Internet Day

Child Protection 

• Activated 8 Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) units 
• Established 3 child-friendly spaces Formed 4 school child protection committees 
• Trained 540 LGU and school-based service providers and 152 children on OSAEC prevention and response 

Mental Health 

• Over 45M social media reach for Better Today Conversations
• Trained and mobilized 210 volunteer youth and barangay healthcare workers for Better Today Psychological First Aid program