Better Internet for Kids

Today, the Insafe and INHOPE networks of European Safer Internet Centres (SICs) begin a two-day joint training meeting online. This event is an opportunity to facilitate sharing of experience and good practice between the two networks and to explore areas of common ground and opportunities for closer working between helplines, hotlines and awareness centres.

All over the world, child welfare organisations are working to protect girls and boys from sexualised violence in real life, and also on the internet. However, the sexual exploitation of girls and boys rests on traditions stretching over centuries, and it was not until the 1990s that pedagogical prevention efforts were undertaken and began raising awareness in kindergartens, schools, counselling services and youth authorities towards providing timely support to children and adolescents (Enders, 1990, p. 11).

Humanitarian organisation International Forum of Solidarity – EMMAUS (IFS-EMMAUS) was established in 1999, with the aim of providing assistance to all vulnerable populations, including the victims of human trafficking, online sexual abuse and the circulation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).

The National Contact Centre for Children's Safety on the Internet was formed within the Smart and Safe platform by the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications in 2017 in Belgrade. Through this Centre, the Ministry conducts counseling for children, parents, students and teachers, as well as all other citizens, about the advantages and risks of using the internet and safe ways to use new technologies. It is also possible to receive reports of harmful, inappropriate and illegal content and behaviour on the internet, that is, reporting a violation of the rights and interests of the child.

This back to school season, the Greek Safer Internet Centre (SIC) is launching two new illustrated books, "Athena and her new tablet" and "Athena learns about personal data", targeted to children aged 4-8. These two storybooks take in interactive approach to accompany children in their first contacts with the online world.

On Friday, 18 September 2020, the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics (LSE) held, in the framework of the CO:RE – Children Online: Research and Evidence (CO:RE) project, its third CO:RE Theories Webinar on "Digital Technologies in the Lives of Children and Young People", inviting the project coordinators from three Horizon 2020 projects – ySKILLS, DigiGen and DIGYMATEX – to share their conceptualisations and research methodologies on the topic.

Learning and working are becoming increasingly digitised. However, European experts on Education and the Labour Market consider the quality and effectiveness of initiatives to foster digital skills to be often deficient and their provision unequal. The experts, interviewed in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, agreed that this worldwide crisis acted as a "wake-up call" for governments to reassess their digital needs and invest more in digital literacy education for all.

In the run-up to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) 2020, the programme #Youth4DigitalSustainability brings together young people from all over the world to work together on the topic of sustainability in internet governance.

In May 2020, non-governmental organisation (NGO) Better Internet Centre and the Centre Startum (Kharkiv) launched the project #Cornflowers (Inclusive digital experience: reality and needs) in Ukraine.

With September well underway, many of us are returning to more time spent on laptops and online. The INHOPE network of internet hotlines works hard to remove illegal content and to make sure that you and your children don't come across images and videos of child sexual abuse. To help in this fight, and to provide support in this back to school season, INHOPE wants to make sure that everyone is informed on what child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is and what kind of content should be reported. INHOPE also offers tips on how to avoid photos of children and young people ending up in the hands of predators.