Better Internet for Kids

On the internet, adolescents are exposed to unrealistic beauty standards, idealised and sexualised images of people and their lifestyles. Failure to live up to such beauty standards imposed by unattainable and often graphically altered pictures online can have a negative impact on the well-being and mental health of young people, according to a new study conducted by the Slovenian Safer Internet Centre.

Five European organisations have launched a project, called ENDING (ICT & Early School Leaving. Developing a New Methodology to Empower Children in Digital WellbeIng and Critical ThiNkinG), to help reduce early school dropouts. Various studies have identified that addiction to and misuse of technology are among the factors that lead to early school leaving.

From 26 to 30 June 2022, a group of about 200 young volunteers (Young Informants) in information and awareness raising initiatives from Portugal and Spain met in Mollina, Spain to share good practices and discuss different online safety issues related to their volunteer activities.

On Tuesday, 8 February 2022, we celebrated the 19th edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) across the globe, including in Australia. The Australian Office of the eSafety Commissioner, in its role of Safer Internet Day Committee for Australia, shares the main insights of the events that took place to celebrate the day.

Today marks International Youth Day 2022. Every year on 12 August, the day is celebrated all around the globe. The day was initiated by the United Nations (UN) in 1998, to bring youth issues to the attention of the international community as half of the people on our planet are 30 or younger, and this is expected to reach 57% by the end of 2030.

At the beginning of July, the second webinar of the SIC+ programme took place with a focus on the role of parents and awareness-raising activities that address parents. Three organisations shared their knowledge and resources on this topic: COFACE Families Europe, Child Focus and Mediawijs. This article presents the key takeaways of this webinar, including links to relevant resources on the topic of the role of parents and awareness-raising activities for online safety.

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 30 March 2022, the Insafe-INHOPE Coordination Team visited the Hungarian Safer Internet Centre in Budapest.

Today marks the International Day of Friendship, celebrated every year on 30 July. The day was initiated by the United Nations (UN) in 2011 to promote "friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals" as a way to "inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities".

Many parents don’t know how to talk to their children about all things happening online. That is why Child Focus provides media education for parents to teach them about what young people are doing and how to deal with it.

This new teaching unit for secondary school teachers and educators intends to raise awareness among young people about the risks related to sexting. It is based on a fictional story about a young girl who becomes a victim when exchanging intimate content.