Digital skills have become more crucial than ever - the European Union has designated 2023 as the European Year of Skills: the focus is therefore on putting “skills centre-stage”, highlighting the critical importance of equipping people, and especially children and young people, with the competences they need to succeed in an increasingly digitised world.  

Given the EU’s ambitious Digital Decade plans for 80 per cent of all adults to have basic digital skills by 2030, the subsequent European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles for the Digital Decade clearly indicates as a priority that “Children and young people should be protected and empowered online”.  

How can we ensure that children and young people have the right tools and skills to be protected and empowered online? As this is a crucial area of work for BIK, you will find below some of the key resources that are available to all. 

The BIK Teacher corner 

The Teacher corner is a section of the BIK portal entirely dedicated to teachers, educators and other adults who work with children and young people. It is your ‘one stop shop’ for learning and teaching about digital citizenship and online safety, and your go-to place for free information, advice and suggested resources to empower you to educate and support youth to safely and positively navigate their digital world. 

There, you will find a wide selection of learning modules, providing teachers and educators with a broad knowledge base to understand the opportunities, risks and educational approaches related to digital citizenship and online safety, and deep dive articles, providing teachers and educators with greater information, advice and resources to understand specific topics and areas of risk. 

If you’re looking for up-to-date resources and learning materials to discover more about the most pertinent topics – such as cyberbullying, mis- and disinformation, sexting and sextortion, AI, online gaming, healthy digital habits and more – the BIK Teacher corner is the perfect place. 

#Back2School with BIK 

The 2023 #Back2School campaign recently launched across Better Internet for Kids (BIK) communication channels, aimed at anyone working with children and young people to educate them to a safer, better internet experience, including teachers and educators, to support their activities and raise awareness of online safety topics in the classroom. 

Building on the momentum, the campaign also aims to give visibility to similar campaigning activities, initiatives, and events carried out by the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres, in a synergised effort to collectively amplify the key dissemination messages. Read more about the campaigning activities of the Insafe network here. 

A range of educational materials are also available on the BIK resource repository. To follow the campaigning activities, make sure to check out the hashtag #Back2School and to follow us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and LinkedIn. 

Improve your digital skills 

Digital transformation is our present and future, and everyone – and especially children and young people – should be prepared with the right knowledge and skills to be able to lead in the future.

If you are looking for opportunities to improve your digital skills, to kickstart your career as a young professional, or to support your project, the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform keeps you up to date with training, funding and career opportunities available across Europe.    

Similarly, a series of good practices and resources are available to all to inspire digital education across Europe by showcasing examples of successful initiatives, strategies, and case studies. 

Are you ready to start learning new digital skills? The Cyber Skills Academy is a European policy initiative aiming to bring together existing initiatives on cyber skills and improve the building of knowledge across different sources. The 2023-2024 work programme was recently launched. 

Get ready for Safer Internet Forum 2023 

The Safer Internet Forum (SIF) is a key annual international conference in Europe where policymakers, researchers, law enforcement bodies, youth, parents and caregivers, teachers, NGOs, industry representatives, experts and other relevant actors come together to discuss the latest trends, opportunities, risks and solutions related to child online safety and making the internet a better place. 

Building on all the policy developments mentioned above, with the inclusion of the new European strategy for a better internet for kids (also known as the BIK+ strategy) and its three key pillars – safe digital experiences to protect children, digital empowerment and active participation, respecting children – this year’s edition will focus particularly on pillars two and three, with the theme being “Empowering YOUth with skills for the Digital Decade”. Once again, we are aiming for it to be youth-led edition, putting the views and ideas of the young people in the spotlight, and making sure their voices are heard. 

Save the date for this year’s edition on Thursday, 23 November 2023. Online registration is already open.