Better Internet for Kids

As part of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Quality Assurance Programme (QAP), the Insafe-INHOPE Coordination Teams are jointly conducting a set of fifteen country visits to national Safer Internet Centres (SICs) to better understand what is happening in the Member States: monitoring emerging issues and challenges, identifying good practices to be shared, and harvesting the results of Better Internet for Kids (BIK) policy. On 12 and 13 September 2024, an online cluster meeting took place with the Danish and Polish SICs.  

Denmark

Danish SIC is a partnership between the Media Council for Children and Young People, acting as the awareness centre and the SIC coordinator, Save the Children Denmark operating the hotline, and Centre for Digital Youth Care operating the helpline and carrying out youth participation coordination.

The Media Council, which is situated in the Agency for Culture and Palaces under the Danish Ministry of Culture, meets four times per year to discuss strategy and position on media literacy. The Council decides what the priorities should be and what needs to be developed. The two main tasks are to classify films to age categories and also to run the national awareness centre which provides information and knowledge about children and young people’s use of digital media for educators, parents, caregivers and others. In this context, some of the resources highlighted during the meeting included:

• Short cut: Short cut is an online universe which provides parents and carers with ways that they can support children and young people online.
• GDR – WHAT?: This is a resource aimed at professionals which provides educational materials for grade 3-9.  
• Digital Brilliant: Digital Brilliant is a toolbox for parent-teacher meetings which supports the dialogue between home and school.
• Young people and algorithms: This resource was created for SID 2023, based on youth seminars with 8th graders from three different cities in Denmark. 250 students took part and various videos have been created with young people explaining about algorithms from a youth perspective. There is an accompanying teachers guide on how to use the materials.

The Danish SIC operates two youth panels – a physical youth panel and a digital youth panel – and they currently focus on young people in vulnerable positions. For this purpose, the CDYC partnered with a local municipality to be able to reach such vulnerable youth. The physical youth panel is composed of 6-15 young people between the ages of 15-20 years old. This group meets four times over a six-month period, and focuses on safety and security online, providing their perspectives on online challenges, risks and potential solutions. As part of these meetings, a new peer-to-peer initiative was put forward, which involves a young adult facilitating the panel meetings. On the other hand, the digital youth panel, which is open to participation 13–25-year-olds across the country, allows the Danish SIC to reach a wider, more representative audience and compare the collected feedback to ensure broader applicability.  

Operated by the Centre for Digital Youth Care, Danish SIC helpline is a general helpline which also has a specific focus on digital aspects. It provides support children and young people and their parents/carers and educators. The helpline is available in 50 municipalities across the country and is able to offer local counselling as well as educational materials about the online life of young people. Cyberhus is the main service for children and young people and there is also a new service “Scammed” for children and young people who have been scammed in gaming.

The Danish hotline called AnmeldDet, has been operated by Save the Children Denmark since 2001. It is the only hotline in the country, and it collaborates closely with the Danish Police National Cyber Crime Centre.

Poland

The Polish SIC is run by a consortium consisting of the national research institute NASK (the project coordinator) and the Empowering Children Foundation. Both organisations run the awareness centre and youth participation together, while the Foundation is coordinating the helpline and NASK the hotline.

The awareness centre conduct comprehensive awareness-raising activities promoting safe and responsible use of new media by children and young people. In this context, the Polish SIC highlighted the following events, activities and resources during the meeting:  

• Safer Internet Day (SID): Safer Internet Day being one of the key annual activities, in 2024 a conference was hosted with 640 participants onsite and over 1300 online with the event being broadcast live on YouTube and the SIC website. Moreover, there were a number of educational activities taking place in February and March including online lessons and workshops. The creation of online lessons started with SID 2021 with the aim of reaching as many schools as possible. By SID 2024, 33 lessons were launched, each cover a variety of topics including fake news, online activism, online violence, excessive use of technology, digital wellbeing and online privacy.
• Annual Conference: An annual conference, named Keeping Children and Young People Safe Online, takes place in September each year attracting over 7500 participants onsite and online. The conference is one of the SICs annual flagship events and is delivered in Polish, Ukrainian and English.
• Sieciaki.pl: Sieciaki.pl is a resource aimed at primary school children (and their parents and teachers). There is a fictional team of talented children and young people who are familiar with online safety issues and help to fight threats online. There are three books aimed at children about the adventures of this team, the most recent focused on online hate. The website is also available in Ukrainian.  
• Dopamine: A campaign named Dopamine was released as an educational film to promote conscious and safe use of social media among young people. It tackles key issues such as the dopamine loop mechanism, user profiling and toxic online relationships but avoids a one-sided narrative about the harm that can be caused by new technologies. Young people were involved in the planning and preparation of the video as well as a well-known neuro biologist so that it was possible to scientifically accurate. The film is available on YouTube with English subtitles.

The Polish youth panel has been active since 2011, and currently it includes approximately 60 students between 13 and 17 years old from 12 different schools. The youth panel members are consulted to provide feedback on the SIC’s educational materials and provide insights on emerging trends. They also represent the Polish SIC in various national or international activities such as the Safer Internet Day (SID) celebrations or the BIK Youth Panel and the Safer Internet Forum (SIF).

The helpline, run by the Empowering Children Foundation, has been working within Poland and abroad for the last 30 years. As well as providing support for children and young people who are victims of abuse there is also a focus on research and advocacy. The child on the web counselling centre is dedicated to dealing with issues around children’s online safety and offers phone and online help. The helpline uses the 116 111 harmonised number for children and youth and can be contacted via phone, email and chat.

The hotline of the Polish SIC, Dyzurnet, has been operated by NASK since 2005. The reporting service is available via an online form on the hotline website as well as through email, browser plugins for Chrome and Firefox, and an automated phone line. It was also noted during the meeting that the Polish hotline team aspires to share their knowledge and experience with other hotlines. In relation to that, the Polish hotline helped the establishment of their Ukrainian counterpart through offering a one-week workshop hosted in Poland for the Ukrainian analysts.

Further information about the Danish and Polish Safer Internet Centres can be found on the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) public portal, including links to its national websites and other contact information. Similar information can be found on the BIK portal for all Safer Internet Centres in Europe.