The event was organised in partnership with the Romanian senate and moderated by Gabriela Alexandrescu, Executive President of Save the Children Romania, and attended by representatives of the Romanian government, the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police, the section for Combating Terrorism and Cybercrime within DIICOT and the Centre for International Police Cooperation. Representatives of the authorities provided procedural details and statistics on how to intervene in cases of child sexual abuse, while proposing solutions to improve public policies on child safety in the online environment. 

On the same occasion, Save the Children Romania also launched the report on the cases reported by the child abuse hotline esc_ABUZ. The results of the Internet Class programme of 2021 were also presented during the debate. Although affected by the pandemic and restrictions during last year, the Romanian Safer Internet Centre has continued both its educational and child support activities for parents and teachers to educate on a safe, useful and efficient use of the internet. The activities consisted of informative sessions and school competitions involving over 40,015 children and 6,000 adults nationwide, as well as online campaigns or conferences that gathered hundreds of thousands of views. 

The SID online event, which benefited from the presence of the Ministry of Education showing support for the programme, was broadcasted live on Facebook and reached more than 54,000 people, collected 138 shares, 289 comments and 489 reactions.  

In addition, a press release was distributed to the main media outlets, generating 169 articles online, 9 radio and 5 television appearances.  

Furthermore, in-person activities were organised in 58 schools, involving a total of 1,599 children and teenagers.  

The main findings of the 2021 report on the Internet Class programme 

The average age at which children start using the internet in Romania has decreased compared to the data recorded by similar research in 2019, when it was 9 years old. In the 2021 study, the average age at which children (at the level of the entire sample) stated that they started accessing the internet is 8.2 years. 

It is significantly lower in respondents under the age of 12 (6.8 years), in male respondents (7.8 years, compared to 8.5 in the case of girls) and in children living in urban areas (7.7 years, compared to 8.9 for rural children). The mobile phone is the main device from which young people access the internet – in 99 per cent of the cases, followed by laptop (62 per cent), Smart TV (42 per cent) and tablet (24 per cent). 

84 per cent of children and teenagers use the internet mainly to check on content posted by other users, 70 per cent of them use it to play, 67 per cent use it for social networks, while 46 per cent use the internet to find out about situations and news. 

78 per cent of the surveyed use the internet daily for at least three hours, outside of school hours. The percentage of those who spend between one and two hours a day is 19 per cent, while children who use the internet less than one hour a day is 3 per cent. 

About a third (29 per cent) of interviewees say they have received inappropriate content depicting nudity or sexual harassment online. It should be noted that this is not accidental content but received as the recipient of the message. About 10 per cent of children say they have received such messages at least monthly. 73 per cent of them did not know how to react, doing nothing in this regard, and only 11 per cent discussed this situation with someone. At the same time, 20 per cent of children say that they have been asked to take inappropriate photos or videos. Children between the ages of 15 and 17 and girls state this to a significantly higher extent. 

Concerns about the proliferation of sexually explicit images online or other illegal or harmful content have become more widespread in recent years and have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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