by Catriona Mulcahy, Digital Content Officer at Webwise
Schools and students from across Ireland have been recognised for their outstanding efforts in promoting online safety and digital citizenship as part of their Safer Internet Day (SID) 2025 activities.
Safer Internet Day is a global initiative that aims to create a safer and more positive online experience for everyone, especially children and young people. In Ireland, the campaign is coordinated by Webwise. This year, over 200,000 children and young people nationwide took part in a wide range of SID activities.
The 2025 campaign encouraged schools to explore a variety of key topics – from cyberbullying and image sharing to privacy, digital wellbeing, online rights, and this year’s central theme: Prepare / Protect / Thrive – Navigating Algorithms and Influencers.
At the post-primary level, Patrician Academy, Mallow, received the Best Overall Campaign Award. Their campaign stood out for its creativity, strong peer-led approach, and meaningful impact. Highlights included a digital scavenger hunt, original songs, poster designs, classroom debates, and engaging video content – all centred around peer-to-peer learning and student collaboration.
In the SID Ambassador Leadership Award category, Órla Brennan and Kaitlyn Summers from Presentation Secondary School Kilkenny, were recognised for their outstanding leadership. As participants in the Webwise SID Ambassador Training Programme – a peer-led initiative that empowers students to lead online safety campaigns – Órla and Kaitlyn developed and delivered an inspiring school-wide campaign. Their initiative promoted respect, inclusion and digital wellbeing through a series of creative and thoughtful activities that brought their school and local community together.
At primary level, Castlebar Primary School won Best Overall Campaign for a whole-school initiative that was both creative and inclusive. Their campaign featured poster competitions, podcasts, student-led projects, and strong home–school links, all of which helped communicate key Safer Internet Day messages in an engaging and accessible way.
The full list of SID Awards 2025 winners is available at webwise.ie.
