Better Internet for Kids

During the COVID-19 pandemic, teenagers spent a lot of time on the internet, and especially on social networks. In doing so, they likely came across posts from peers, influencers, and complete strangers showing idealised images of their lives and bodies. Such posts can have a negative impact on teenagers and their self-esteem. The situation among young people has especially worsened during the pandemic, as noted by Slovenian Helpline Tom telefon and Slovenian Awareness Centre Safe.si.

When schools started implementing remote emergency teaching and learning due to the pandemic, and teaching moved into the private space of children and youth in their bedrooms, kitchens, and living rooms, a change in group dynamics seemed inevitable. Would cyberbullying increase if studying from home became the norm?

In celebration of Safer Internet Day (SID) 2020, a group of Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Youth Ambassadors prepared a Youth Pledge for a better internet on how to make the information on the apps and services they use on the internet more age appropriate for children and young people and worked with industry to achieve their aims. Following its initial success, the Youth Pledge initiative is continuing.

Professor Daniel Sampaio, Professor Ivone Patrão and the Directorate-General for Education, under the auspices of the SeguraNet Awareness Centre (part of the Portuguese Safer Internet Centre) and with the support of Geração Cordão and the Child Support Institute, have launched the campaign “Holidays: a healthy techno place!”, which seeks to encourage healthy use of technology among children and young people during the school holidays.

Teenagers and adults in 18 countries said perceptions of online civility have deteriorated one year into the global pandemic, with respondents in Poland, Philippines, Italy, Germany and Hungary reporting the sharpest net-negative sentiment, new Microsoft research shows.

A new study on online behaviour and the challenges faced by Austrian children and youth on social networks shows a competent use and a conscious online presence.

Every year, the Austrian Safer Internet Centre collects data on the social media use of Austrian children and youth. Which social networks do young people in Austria use? Which platforms are trending, and which ones have become less popular? The results are published in the Youth Internet Monitor.

As part of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Quality Assurance Programme (QAP), the Insafe-INHOPE Coordination Teams are jointly conducting a set of ten 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. Due to the circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a visit planned to the Polish Safer Internet Centre had to be converted into an online meeting that took place on 9 September 2020, bringing together a group of diverse stakeholders and SIC consortium partners.

As part of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Quality Assurance Programme (QAP), the Insafe-INHOPE Coordination Teams are jointly conducting a set of ten 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. Due to the circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a visit planned to the Cyprus Safer Internet Centre had to be converted into an online meeting that took place on 3 December 2020, bringing together a group of diverse stakeholders and SIC consortium partners.

During Portugal’s Presidency of the European Union, the Portuguese media regulator IGAC has officially recognised PEGI as the age rating system for video games, following the implementation of a decree that regulates the authorisation of video game distribution in Portugal.