GEMS Wellington Academy hosts World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader

Students from grade 5 and above at GEMS Wellington Academy, Al Khail recently welcomed Dr Yuhyun Park – Head of iZ HERO digital citizenship initiative for children. She discussed digital citizenship and the responsibilities and challenges that come with the potential offered by the digital media available today.

Addressing the issue of cyberbullying, Dr Park emphasized that everything one does in cyberspace leaves a footprint and warned students not to put anything on social media that they may later come to regret. She shared powerful statistics to back up her message of the potential dangers of the internet.

Dr Park also took questions from the students, including “what is cyberbullying?” and the difference between cyberbullying and other types of bullying. She also pointed out why cyberbullying can be particularly damaging as it can follow you anywhere and provided useful advice to the students to block unwanted contact or save any content which is meant to be harmful.

Colin Callaghan, Principal, GEMS Wellington School, Al Khail thanked Dr. Park for reinforcing the school’s messages about safe use of the internet and said: “We are often told that students are very ‘tech savvy’, but whilst they often understand how to use and access social media and the web, my experience is that they do not always fully understand the potential dangers. I have had some excellent feedback from students who appreciated having someone of Dr Parks’ standing to deliver such a strong message.

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“This isn’t just a school issue but a global one for which each student must take individual responsibility”, he added.

Yuhyun Park is the founder DQ Institute, Singapore – a think tank committed to improve digital education, culture and innovation through cross-sector collaboration and big data research. As a social entrepreneur and researcher, she founded infollution ZERO – a non-profit organization in Korea that is focused on raising public awareness of information pollution such as cyberbullying and technology addiction and shaping public policy on internet safety and education. She is an Eisenhower Fellow and an Ashoka Fellow. She is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and member of the Steering Committee of the World Economic Forumês project Shaping the Future Implications of Digital Media for Society.