Reading hosts town’s first ever summit on online safety for young people

THE mother of Olly Stephens, who tragically lost his life to knife crime in 2021, will be among the speakers at Reading’s first ever children and young people’s Online Safety Summit, which takes place next week.

Amanda Stephens, a staunch campaigner for better education around the real dangers faced by young people online and on social media, will be a key note speaker at the Summit which takes place at Reading Town Hall on Wednesday 20 November.

Reading’s Young Voices will lead the summit, which is now fully booked, in association with the Community Safety Partnership, which includes Reading Borough Council and Thames Valley Police. The summit brings together children and young people from schools across Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham to work with and advise professionals on how best to support children to understand and navigate the risks of being online.  

Ofcom and the Youth Justice Board will also be in attendance, whilst the Chief Executive of the National Youth Agency and original member of the Reading Youth Council, Leigh Middleton, will be opening the event.

Guest speakers and contributors will include a range of national charities including the Molly Rose Foundation, Breck Foundation and Ben Kinsella Trust – charities set up by parents after losing children to online grooming, knife crime and exploitation.

The summit’s objectives are to:

• Hear from children about their concerns and understand from them what adjustments adults, parents and professionals need to make to how they approach online safety
• Influence local strategic partnerships to better respond to online safety and how to best interact with children in the online space
• Discuss with children and young people their experience of the online space including gaming, social media and AI (artificial intelligence)

• Amanda Stephens said:

“I am so excited to be involved in a groundbreaking event here in our home town.  Reading is taking seriously the risk to our children through our lack of understanding of the reality they live in on and offline. "                                                       

Representatives of Reading’s Community Safety Partnership will also be present. The group consists of Reading Borough Council, Thames Valley Police, The Probation Service (South Central), Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service, Buckingham, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care System (BOB ICS), Brighter Futures for Children and representatives from Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, along with a range of partners from Reading’s thriving voluntary and community sector.

Karen Rowland, Lead Councillor for Environmental Services and Community Safety and Chair of the Reading Community Safety Partnership, said:

“We are exceedingly proud to be hosting this pioneering event at Reading Town Hall on Wednesday 20 November.  It is the aspiration of the event to allow professionals who work with children and make decisions about them to understand the risks – as told by children themselves - about their online experiences, and identify the opportunities to improve relationships and the help and protection adults can offer them”.

Carly Newman, Operations and Relationships Manager at No5 Young People who leads Young Voices, added:

“Young Voices has come together to create meaningful opportunities for children and young people to have their voices heard and be involved in strategy and decision making. All too often decision makers and leaders do not take account of what young people have to say or think about services provided to them.  

“Young people’s experience of crime and the support they receive when they are victims has been raised by our Young Voices Group with the Reading Community Safety Partnership – online safety is a theme that has been highlighted and that they are now taking forward at their first summit, with more than 13 schools attending along with representatives of agencies from across the local area”.