In the spotlight: Safer Internet Centre Latvia and Lithuania
As part of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Quality Assurance Programme (QAP), the Insafe-INHOPE Coordination Teams are jointly conducting a set of fourteen 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 the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) policy. On 20-21 February 2023, an online cluster meeting with the Latvian and Lithuanian SICs was organised by the Insafe-INHOPE Coordination Team.
Updates from the Finnish hotline
In Finland, in early July, the Ministry of Justice issued a draft to the Minister of Justice to suggest amendments to the Criminal Code regarding sexual offences.
Commission adopts strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse is a growing threat, both online and offline. To counter this phenomenon, the European Commission (EC) adopted an EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse on Friday, 24 August 2020.
BIK Youth at COFACE Digital Citizenship Breakfast Byte – Are youth all natural digital citizens?
From Monday, 11 to Wednesday, 20 May 2020, COFACE Families Europe marked the International Day of Families 2020 by hosting Digital Citizenship Breakfast Bytes, a series of eight 90-minute online sessions (from 9:30-11:00 CEST) aiming to increase critical thinking and understanding of the digital world. Four Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Youth Ambassadors hosted the last session, "Are youth all natural digital citizens?" on Wednesday, 20 May 2020, discussing what being a digital citizen meant to them.
SIC+ countries meet to discuss awareness raising and youth participation
Global participants in the SIC+ programme recently took part in a webinar to share experiences and good practices relating to awareness raising and youth participation in online safety issues. The Insafe and INHOPE networks launched the SIC+ initiative with the aim of extending and replicating the successful Safer Internet Centre (SIC) model beyond Europe.
ECPAT Sweden publishes report on harmful contact
ECPAT Sweden's hotline has noticed that self-generated material involves increasingly younger children, some as young as seven years old.
Patostreaming – A new concern for Polish parents and educators
The internet as a medium is often hailed as an invention facilitating creative, personal expression. However, even tools designed to empower can be used for nefarious purposes. Some creators of web content find their niche market thanks to their willingness to do almost anything to become the centre of attention. This is the case with "Patostreaming", a new type of online threat in Poland. According to a 2018 "Nastolatki 3.0" (Teenagers 3.0) study, almost a quarter of Polish students aged 15 and 17 have watched such content.
EuroDIG 2020 through the eyes of a BIK Youth Ambassador
Kathrin, BIK Youth Ambassador from Germany, took part in the EuroDIG 2020 (European Dialogue on Internet Governance), which took place from Wednesday, 10 June to Friday, 12 June 2020 online. Below, she shares the main take-aways of the sessions she attended.
Introducing Ora de Net - Romanian Safer Internet Programme name change
The Safer Internet Programme was established in Romania in 2008, with funding from the European Commission (EC), in the aim of promoting the use of the internet by children and adolescents in a creative, useful and safe way. The project materialised through the partnership between Save the Children and Focus Romania, which ensured the operation of the Safernet Hotline.
Making terms and conditions accessible to young people with the BIK Youth Ambassadors
In February 2020, a group of six Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Youth Ambassadors marked Safer Internet Day (SID) by hosting a dialogue with industry members from the Alliance to better protect minors online at the European Commission (EC) on the age appropriateness of apps and services' privacy information for children and young people. Below, three of them – Matej, Kathrin and Charampoulos – look back on their experience and share their aspirations.
