The 2020 edition of Safer Internet Day took place on Tuesday, 11 February 2020. On this day, GNR, NOS, and Microsoft carried out training actions in 8 NOS theatres across the country (Almancil, Braga, Cascais, Évora, Montijo, Coimbra, Aveiro, Paços de Ferreira) and from GNR's mission in Timor. Approximately 1,500 students from the seventh to ninth grades attended NOS movie theatres.

To open the common session, the Director General, Paula Panarra, gave a presentation from Casa Microsoft using Teams technology. After all rooms were connected by Teams, all participants could watch the presentations of GNR, NOS, and Microsoft from Cinema NOS in Cascais. In the end, local training actions were held in each city.

In addition, throughout February, about 100 Microsoft volunteers have been conducting training actions directly in Portuguese schools for children and young people from the first cycle to secondary education (students aged 6-18), covering several topics on online security.

Another initiative to strengthen communication on the safe use of the internet, which is intended to reach 1 million viewers, was the exhibition in NOS movie theatres of some of the main rules to be safe online:

• Choose well what you publish – once online, forever online!
• Make regular changes to your passwords, which must be personal and non-transferable!
• Don't feel threatened on the internet! Report! Ask for help, and do not threaten others.
• Don't believe everything you see online; ensure you're in a safe environment!
• Reflect! Are you a good internet user who refuses to spread bad practices?
• Treat your virtual identity with the same care as you do for your real identity.

Microsoft Director of Education and Philanthropy Sandra Martinho stressed the importance and urgency of creating consensus on the best practices in digital behaviour. Over the past six years, Microsoft has reached more than 90,000 students, teachers, parents and seniors. In 2019, Microsoft took companies to schools and vice versa. With this interaction, students led awareness and reflection sessions on various topics, such as cyberbullying and social media safety, targeting more than 22,000 participants in 600 actions across the country.

New challenges are currently arising from the use of the internet, so it is also our responsibility to maintain and strengthen communication that can lead to a more conscious use of it.

For more information about Safer Internet Day activities in Portugal, visit the Portuguese Safer Internet Centre's Safer Internet Day profile page.

Find out more information about the work of the Portuguese 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.