Better Internet for Kids

Information will be announced in September (at the beginning of the new school year) through the Cyprus Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth, where it will inform all the schools of Cyprus about the SIC, the 1480 Helpline, as well as all the existing programmes about the safe and responsible use of the internet which will be offered during the school year. The offered programmes concern:

• The "Young Coaches for the Internet" educational programme will run until the end of the year. The programme aims to educate students to become young coaches for the internet in their schools and the wider communities, through the development and implementation of an action plan. At the same time, the school's action plans, actions, and educational materials are uploaded to the programme portal, while the participating schools can decide on the ones that they would like to see published on the portal's public website.
• The "eSafe School for the Internet" educational programme will run until the end of the year. The programme aims to create a culture within schools and the wider communities for the use of the internet with creativity, safety, and responsibility, through the development and implementation of an action plan. At the same time, the school's action plans, actions, and educational material are uploaded to the programme portal, while the participating schools can decide on the ones that they would like to see published on the portal's public website. More information on the program, as well as sample lesson plans and instructions, can be found on the program website.

Besides, a new poster of Cyber Safety and 1480 Helpline and Hotline has been designed and will be sent to all schools in Cyprus at the beginning of the new school year. A student competition on the creation of a poster for the 1480 Helpline and Hotline will also be announced.

All the collaborators and partners of  the SIC will provide a new series of presentations, lectures, and experiential workshops for students, teachers, and parents, starting on Monday, 21 September 2020, with the aim of disseminating awareness and providing information about the safe and responsible use of internet. Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the current actions and programmes will take place online, through the platform Microsoft Teams. More information is available on the Cyprus SIC's website (in Greek).

At the beginning of the school year, the SIC will launch an annual video contest about the safe and responsible use of the internet, called #Together_We can. It will be based on the Safer Internet Day motto "Together for a better internet". In this competition, participants will be asked to demonstrate how together we can fight online violence and cyberbullying, bring an end to hate speech and racism, stop misinformation and fake news, and protect personal data and users' digital identity.

The Cyprus SIC, in the context of the digital capacity development, created and promoted a manual including four learning modules shared by the Cyprus Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth. The four modules explore the following themes:

• Rules for ethical online behaviour, cyberbullying.
• Electronic and internet games.
• Information and misinformation.
• Personal data and digital identity.

In the autumn of 2020, an online conference will be held by the Cyprus SIC partners to train parents on how their children can use the internet safely while studying online.

New educational and informational material (such as lesson plans, presentations, leaflets, and so on) and articles will be introduced, focusing on the risks and the rules for an online ethical behaviour, including some practical advice on distance learning. The relevant material will be shared through the official websites of the Cyprus SIC and its social media pages.
The Cyprus SIC, in collaboration with the Cyprus Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Youth, will provide guidelines for students, teachers, and parents, about the online platform  Microsoft Teams, which is officially utilised in Cyprus as a digital educational platform.

Besides, the Cyprus SIC has developed five learning modules and educational materials concerning Microsoft Teams, which will be provided to all the elementary and secondary schools, offering the opportunity to students to familiarise themselves with the platform.

Find out more information about the work of the Cyprus Safer Internet Centre (SIC) generally, including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services, or find similar information for Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe.