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.
Misinformation and freedom of expression – the case of the Albanian "anti-defamation package"
On Thursday, 11 June 2020, at the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG 2020), the Insafe network of European Safer Internet Centres (SICs), represented by Sabrina Vorbau, Project Manager at European Schoolnet (EUN) and Youth Coordinator on the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) project and Joachim Kind, Head of EU Networks at the Media Authority of Rhineland-Palatinate (LMK) and spokesperson for the German Safer Internet Centre (SIC), hosted a workshop on "Social media – opportunities, rights and responsibilities", looking at the limitations and pitfalls of freedom of speech on the internet from multiple stakeholder perspectives. In this article, Dr Nertil Bërdufi, Assistant Professor at University College Beder and Founder and Director of Beder Legal Clinic, discusses the case of Albania to highlight the societal and security impact of disinformation, as well as the governments' controversial attempt at regulating it.
The good, the bad and the urgent – tackling information disorder
On Thursday, 11 June 2020, at the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG 2020), the Insafe network of European Safer Internet Centres (SICs), represented by Sabrina Vorbau, Project Manager at European Schoolnet (EUN) and Youth Coordinator on the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) project and Joachim Kind, Head of EU Networks at the Media Authority of Rhineland-Palatinate (LMK) and spokesperson for the German Safer Internet Centre (SIC), hosted a workshop on "Social media – opportunities, rights and responsibilities", looking at the limitations and pitfalls of freedom of speech on the internet from multiple stakeholder perspectives. In this article, Tanja Pavleska from the Laboratory for Open Systems and Networks, Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia, examines some of the challenges encountered by the initiatives combating disinformation.
Latest helpline trends: Quarter 1, 2020
The Insafe network of helplines collects data about the types of calls received and this is analysed every three months to look at trends and new and emerging issues.
Dickpics, porn stickers, dirty talk: sexual harassment online
Sexual messages, pictures and videos reach young people online every day. Without the consent of the recipient, this must be classified as sexual harassment. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, communication has shifted to the digital space even more; the German Awareness Centre klicksafe offers advice for those affected and recommends that children and young people should be made aware of sexual border violations in the digital world in an age-appropriate manner.
