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The Virginia Information Technologies Agency and the Virginia Department of Education are now accepting entries for the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center’s annual Kids Safe Online Poster Contest.

The VDOE press release continued by stating that the goal of the contest is to engage young people in creating posters to encourage their peers to use the internet safely and securely. It’s also an opportunity for teachers in classrooms across Virginia to address and reinforce cybersecurity and online safety issues. All public, private or home-schooled students in kindergarten through 12th grade are eligible to participate.

“I encourage teachers and parents to make sure students know of this creative opportunity to raise awareness with one another about cyberbullying and staying safe online,” Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction James Lane said. “This is critically important given the amount of time students spend online for educational and social reasons.”

Virginia’s Chief Information Security Officer Michael Watson said, “This is a great opportunity to start educating students of all ages about the importance of staying safe online. Children are some of the most vulnerable targets on the internet and social media. The more they know, the better they can protect themselves when and if the need arises.”

The top five Virginia winners from each grade group will be entered into the national competition. Entries received may be used in national, regional and state cyber and computer security awareness campaigns. Entries are due by midnight Jan. 12, 2022.

To submit an entry, send it to CommonwealthSecurity@VITA.virginia.gov. The official rules and topic suggestions are included with the entry form, which can be found at the Virginia IT Agency website: vita.virginia.gov/information-security/awareness/kids-safe-online-poster-contest/.

Include the entry form completely filled out (all fields are required) when submitting the poster.