Celebrating Women's History Month and Digital Safety

By Amanda Davis, Sr. Manager, CR and Environment

March is Women’s History Month, coined in 1987 after years of expanded weekly celebrations. The intention is to celebrate and recognize the specific achievements that women have made over the course of history in various fields and encourage further education on their vital role in the past and present. By honoring and telling the stories of women who transformed our world, the hope is that we can begin to remove the obstacles in the way of true equality.

In honor of this very important month, Norton is thrilled to announce our $1 million commitment to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) to expand our co-developed Surf Smart 2.0 program across Europe. This will arm more young girls than ever before with the knowledge and skills required to protect themselves and others online.

For example, as a recent survey by the WAGGGS Member Organisation (Girlguiding UK) shows, girls and young women are facing a horrific level of cyberbullying, and it's causing anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. The unique Surf Smart badge program, started in 2011, was designed to address issues like this and has already reached over 350,000 Girl Guides and Girl Scouts in over 44 countries.

In 2020, we updated the program and released Surf Smart 2.0 and in 2022, our new grant will empower WAGGGS to:

1. Launch online advocacy by creating a Global Advocacy Fund to support girls and young women who wish to develop their own digital advocacy campaigns using the skills learned through the Surf Smart 2.0 module. These young women will attend events such as the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in 2023, where they’ll share their campaigns.
2. Increase reach and test new ways to engage with the program, for example, in the countries where the program is already popular like India, the Philippines, and Uganda, as well as countries across Europe that don’t yet have the program.
3. Drive digital innovation and accessibility by using WAGGGS’ brand-new global digital community platform, Campfire.
4. Expand Surf Smart 2.0 in Europe by supporting the 2023 WAGGGS Academy Event in Germany, as well as expanding the program and providing additional capacity building for online safety to a number of other European countries.
5. Engage and inspire NortonLifeLock employees across the globe through volunteering and awareness raising initiatives.

We are excited to continue to support WAGGGS and bring this important curriculum to young women globally, while celebrating Women’s History Month and throughout the year. And, while this is a time to celebrate our victories towards equality, our commitment to women is part of our everyday culture. To learn more about how we intentionally strive to hire and promote women, how we achieved gender parity on our Board of Directors, and how we increased company-wide gender representation by 2% in FY21, please read our ESG Report.

Learn more about Surf Smart 2.0 or to donate to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts here.