Better Internet for Kids

The Safer Internet Day coordinator in the Czech Republic is the CZ.NIC Association, which also operates the national Safer Internet Centre (SIC). Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, all events this year were planned to take place online. Unlike many other European countries, Safer Internet Day in the Czech Republic is still somehow looking for its place among other international initiatives. However, the Safer Internet Centre is pleased to report that they are succeeding in spreading commitment to the day across Czech society and acquiring interesting partners from the private, non-profit and public sectors, including:

• Seznam.cz: a leading online company providing modern digital services reaching up to 95 per cent of the internet population in the Czech Republic (attracting over 3.5 million real users). For Safer Internet Day 2021, Seznam.cz published a series of articles within its professional news services and even changed its homepage mascot (Krusty the dog) for the day in favour of promoting SID 2021.
• Avast: a world leader in antivirus protection solutions. Avast launched its new series “Internet pod lupou” (Internet under the magnifying glass), prepared in cooperation with KPBI (the Regions for Safe Internet project).
• O2 Czech Republic: a telecommunication company and one of the major mobile service operators. O2 presented new activities planned under its online educational safety project O2 Chytrá škola (O2 Smart School). Together with Seznam.cz and Avast, O2 has been a long-term SID partner.

Among other entities that actively participated in Safer Internet Day were Česká spořitelna (Erste Group), Komerční banka (Societé General), and the Czech News Center (the largest media house with the highest number of readers in the Czech market) which released a video for SID 2021 via its MALL.TV Internet TV channel.

Many public bodies, on both a national and regional level, shared their resources and communicated on safer internet issues also, including the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the Office of the Government and/or many municipalities and regional representations (including their subordinated organisations such as libraries). As in previous years, we were supported by the Vice-President of the European Parliament Dita Charanzová, who issued an appeal to parents and prepared an educational campaign in the media.

At the same time, we were also pleased to watch a true “whirlwind of information” on the Czech Police Facebook on the morning of SID. It is also important to mention the activity of the education department of the National Cyber and Information Security Agency, which presented a new awareness-raising video on this occasion, called “I am the Netizen”.

We must also not forget our traditional partners, which include Linka bezpečí (the Czech Safer Internet Centre’s project partner), the Children’s Crisis Centre, and the Palacký University in Olomouc with its educational “eSafety” project (E-bezpečí). 

In 2021, new partners also joined such as the CESNET Association, the Whalebone Company and DigiKoalice (the Czech National Coalition for Digital Skills and Jobs).

Last but not least, dozens of schools participated in this year’s celebrations. We would like to highlight the primary school in Radostice which sent us the work of their fifth-graders, who prepared advice for their friends on how to work safely on the internet.

Since we cannot list all the partners, we invite you to take a look at the official hashtags of #SaferInternetDay and #SID2021 on Facebook, through which you will get a comprehensive picture of the entire celebration of Safer Internet Day 2021 both in the Czech Republic and beyond.

To conclude, we highly appreciate our partners’ involvement in the day and thank them for all the awareness-raising and educational projects aimed to strengthen internet safety in the Czech Republic. By drawing attention to safer internet issues and promoting them via our communication channels and projects, collectively we contribute to the protection of our children and youth, and ultimately the whole of society. We look forward to working with a range of partners on the next edition of Safer Internet Day, which will take place on Tuesday, 8 February 2022.

Find out more about Safer Internet Day in the Czech Republic. Alternatively, find out more about the work of the Czech Safer Internet Centre, including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services – or find similar information for Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe.