Better Internet for Kids

Online pornography is very easily accessible to all internet users. Slovenian children and teenagers encounter it at a very early age, which can give them incorrect ideas about sexuality and relationships between individuals, and what they see can deeply affect them and their education.

On 8 June 2023, Child Focus and its partners organised the final conference of the European SafeOnline Initiative: a European event on parenting about digital media.

Child Focus launched the card game GrooMix. This educational game aims to make children and teenagers aware of and resilient to phenomena such as online grooming. Grooming is the process by which an adult approaches a minor with a sexual purpose, either to meet them or to obtain explicit material. The game focuses on the (potential) victim perspective: how can you, as a young person, protect yourself against grooming and how to deal with messages from strangers?

It has become a tradition for “Langas į ateitį”, together with the Safer Internet Centre partners, to visit children's camps every summer and to talk to the campers about the opportunities and dangers of the internet.

For 29 years, Linka bezpečí (helpline) has been dedicated to assisting children and students who find themselves in challenging situations, providing support and solutions for their everyday concerns. Parents, family members and other adults working with children receive professional support through the "Parental Line ", offering them help and general social counselling during crisis. The Czech Safer Internet Centre overviews the recurring issues and challenges.

The Education and Youth Board has developed a teacher training course known as “The teaching and learning framework and AI”, or “How to make Kratt* work for you”, consisting of 14 academic hours of online study with five academic hours of independent study. The goal of the training course is to combine various AI solutions with the teaching and learning framework and to analyse how different AI applications can be used in the classroom to support students’ learning.

Video Games Europe (VGE) has launched the Seize the Controls campaign in the run-up to the holiday season. The campaign aims to inform parents about the tools they have at hand to set up the best video game play experience for their family.

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.

In The Netherlands, Media Literacy Week 2023 (celebrated from 10 – 17 November) has come to an end. For an entire week, numerous network partners reflected on dealing with offensive behaviour online under the banner #hierniet (not here). Hundreds of entities endorsed the #hierniet initiative, with activities taking place across the country. Furthermore, almost 190,000 students participated in the MediaMasters serious game as part of the campaign actions.

As the holiday season approaches, many parents find themselves preparing to gift their children new technological devices. It’s important to keep in mind though, that as much joy your gift might bring your child, it also comes with many responsibilities.