Better Internet for Kids

Today, 10 October 2023, we commemorate World Mental Health Day, a global initiative dedicated to raising awareness of mental health issues and supporting collective actions to improve mental well-being worldwide. This day serves as a platform for individuals and organisations working on mental health to contribute and discuss the essential steps to ensure accessible mental health care for everyone across the globe. In addition to these efforts, we also want to shed light on INHOPE's vital support for parents who have survived child abuse, recognising their unique struggles and providing them with essential resources.

This collection of activities aims to encourage primary school children (cycles 2 to 4 in Luxembourg) to use the internet more safely and positively, and is intended for teaching and educational staff. It offers practical exercises (games, crafts) to be carried out quickly and directly. These activities are linked to the skills requirements set out in the “Reference guide for education to and by the media” (Guide de référence pour l’éducation aux et par les médias - Medienkompass).

The Italian Safer Internet Centre (SIC) recently organised an event at the Ministry of Education to kick off the new school year, packed with webinars and other activities for young people.

It’s September, which means it’s once again time to go back to school for pupils, as well as teachers and educators. To kick off the school year that has just started, Better Internet for Kids (BIK) has decided to focus on empowering youth with the skills they need to safely navigate the digital world, and be able to recognise both the opportunities and the challenges it poses.

Youth participation was the key to success when the Swedish Safer Internet Centre (SIC) recently arranged a seminar at Almedalen Week on the isle of Gotland. High school student Huda Omar, who was also the moderator of the seminar, said it is important to give children and youth real and concrete opportunities to be involved.

The holidays are now officially over. As a parent or carer, are you worried about how to cope with your children’s everyday school life? The Austrian Safer Internet Centre (SIC) shows you how to make your life easier and learning fun with apps.

The Insafe network of helplines collects data about the types of calls received and this is analysed every three months in order to look at possible trends and emerging issues. Since April 2023, helplines have been using an updated set of categories to log contacts against. The new categories were agreed upon following extensive consultation and discussion with the helpline network. The work was led by a helpline working group who spent considerable time determining the changes that needed to be made.

In order to contribute to the fight against hate speech, the BEE SECURE initiative ran the #NOHATEONLINE campaign to raise awareness during the 2022-2023 school year.

As summer comes to an end, millions of children around the world return to their classrooms, ready to dive back into traditional school subjects like math, history, literature and science. Yet, one piece that is often missing from their curriculum is digital education. Even though digital technology has long been an indispensable aspect of most students’ lives, online safety online safety remains a scarce topic in many schools worldwide.

In the lead-up to this year's Safer Internet Forum (SIF) 2023, the involvement of young people is taking centre stage, ensuring that the event truly reflects voices of today's digitally connected youth. Two key youth-driven groups, the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Youth Panel and the Safer Internet Forum Youth Advisory Group (SIF YAG), are working hard to shape the event.