Better Internet for Kids

From Monday, 11 to Wednesday, 20 May 2020, COFACE Families Europe is marking the International Day of Families 2020 by hosting Digital Citizenship Breakfast Bytes, a series of eight 90-minute online sessions (from 9:30-11:00 CET) aiming to increase critical thinking and understanding of the digital world. On Friday, 15 May 2020, in the session called "SELMA Hacking Hate Toolkit: Games to empower young people online", the participants had the opportunity to take a closer look at the SELMA project.

From Monday, 11 to Wednesday, 20 May 2020, COFACE Families Europe is marking the International Day of Families 2020 by hosting Digital Citizenship Breakfast Bytes, a series of eight 90-minute online sessions (from 9:30-11:00 CET) aiming to increase critical thinking and understanding of the digital world. Named "European Safer Internet Strategy post-2020: key trends and priorities", the Breakfast Byte of Wednesday, 13 May 2020 focused on the European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children, which is currently under revision.

In February 2020, on the occasion of Safer Internet Day (SID), 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 presented it to a panel of industry representatives at the European Commission. Matěj, BIK Youth Ambassador from Czechia, reflects on his experience below.

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. From 5-6 December 2019, the Safer Internet Centre in Belgium was visited, bringing together a group of diverse stakeholders and SIC consortium partners at the Child Focus office in Brussels.

On Wednesday, 4 March 2020, the Belgian Safer Internet Centre (SIC) Child Focus worked with the private sector for the tenth year to raise awareness among fifth and sixth grade children of the importance of the safe use of the internet and social networks through the "Internet Safe and Fun" prevention programme.

In Belgium, Technopolis officially introduced Friend Zone, a brand-new digital escape game developed by IBM, Child Focus, LUCA School of Arts and Technopolis. The game connects to the world of young people aged 14-18 and presents them with a series of digital and social challenges related to hacking, sexting, privacy, new technologies and disinformation. Schools can book the game.

Safely Online (in Flemish, Veilig Online) is a joint initiative from Gezinsbond and Child Focus. It has several interactive modules and focuses mainly on online safety parenting tips. This project will be extended in Europe in the framework of an Erasmus+ project.

Gyerekaneten.hu, (which means, in Hungarian, "Child on the net") a dictionary-structured website operated by the National Media and Infocommunications Authority (NMHH) was launched on Sunday, 1 March 2020. The website sets out to provide parents with a brief translation and explanation of the digital world in which their children seem to navigate with confidence.

In Greece, the 2020 edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) has been one of the most successful yearly events thanks to everyone's support and excitement. More people than ever have expressed their support, participated in events organised either by the Greek Safer Internet Centre (SIC) or in schools and municipalities using material provided by the SIC.

The AviaTor project began in January 2019 with project partners from ZiuZ Forensics, Web IQ, the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence, the National Police of the Netherlands, the Belgian Federal Police and INHOPE.