Better Internet for Kids

This year’s International Literacy Day will be celebrated worldwide under the theme Transforming Literacy Learning Spaces, and will serve as an opportunity to rethink the fundamental importance of literacy learning spaces to build resilience and ensure quality, equitable, and inclusive education for all.

Better Internet for Kids (BIK) will organise a Roundtable on child and youth consumer protection in digital markets on behalf of DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology (CONNECT) and DG Justice and Consumers (JUST) of the European Commission. The event will take place online on Thursday, 22 September from 09:30 – 13:00 CEST.

A Roundtable on child and youth consumer protection in digital markets will take place online on Thursday, 22 September. Hosted by European Schoolnet as part of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) initiative on behalf of DG CONNECT and DG JUST of the European Commission, the event will seek to consider the main online opportunities and risks for children and young people as consumers, and how child and youth protection in digital markets are being addressed through existing and planned regulation.

It’s September, which means it’s time to go #BackToSchool for many pupils all around the world. There’s no better way to prepare for the return to school desks again than by joining in activities as part of the Positive Online Content Campaign (POCC) awareness month and be reminded of the importance of safe, playful, reliable online content for children.

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.