Insafe Weekly Update

Youth soundbites on their use of virtual worlds

We are still keen to capture a few short video soundbites from young people (30 seconds or so) giving their positive views/experiences with virtual worlds to publish alongside an article/resource mapping on Safer Internet Day. If you can assist us in this task, please contact Inna as soon as possible.

A kind reminder that we seek your participation in this survey focused on gathering information about projects within Europe aimed at preventing child sexual abuse online. The data collected through this survey will be valuable for the implementation and future planning of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) programme within the INHOPE and Insafe networks. Additionally, it will contribute to the research efforts of Kantar Emor, a prominent research company in Estonia, as part of its study commissioned by the Estonian Police and Border Guard Board.
 
Please complete this survey before the close of business on Wednesday, 31 January 2024. If your organisation has multiple projects on preventing child sexual abuse online, kindly complete the survey separately for each implemented project.

In case of questions, please contact Rima.

In a rapidly evolving digital media landscape, the European Commission continues to invest in innovative solutions to enhance media literacy skills of all European citizens, support effective cross-border cooperation, and limit the detrimental impact of disinformation. A call for proposals has been launched under the cross-sectoral strand of the Creative Europe Programme.

Grants will encourage knowledge-sharing and exchanges on media literacy policies and practices to enable the development of innovative cross-border media literacy initiatives and communities across countries, taking into account current user behaviour among various age groups.

The call is open to consortia composed of at least three entities from a minimum of three different countries participating in the Creative Europe Programme. Such consortia may include:

• profit and non-profit organisations (private or public).
• public authorities (national, regional, local).
• international organisations.
• universities and educational institutions.
• media organisations.
• research and technology institutions.
• technology providers.

Find more details on the call for proposals on the European Commission website. The call closes on Thursday, 7 March 2024.

This meeting will take place on Wednesday, 31 January 2024 at 11:00 CET; use this link to join. The meeting will provide an opportunity to hear more about the EDUbox on politics and, in particular, the sub-section on propaganda. The resource has been developed by a number of partners in Belgium, including Mediawijs (part of the Belgian Safer Internet Centre), and aims to empower young voters in the upcoming European elections later in 2024. It is currently available in English, Dutch and Croatian. For further information, please contact Karl.

Emil, a colleague from the Danish helpline will lead the discussion and share information, particularly about the incel communities online in an online meeting on Monday, 12 February 2024 at 11:00 CET; use this link to join the meeting. For further information, please contact Karl.

Several colleagues from helplines and hotlines have already been approached by the organisation expected to become the Digital Services Coordinator (DSC) in their country and asked to consider applying to become a trusted flagger under the auspices of the Digital Services Act (DSA). This meeting, taking place online on Wednesday, 14 February 2024 at 14:00 CET, will be an opportunity to share experiences about the local negotiations that are taking place and to discuss good practice, financial implications, workload etc. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

There will be an online meeting with colleagues from Video Games Europe (VGE, formerly the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE)) and some of its members on the morning of Thursday, 15 February 2024 (exact time and joining information to be confirmed). The meeting will be an opportunity to hear more about virtual worlds and AI voice moderation; for further information in the meantime, please contact Karl.

INHOPE is kicking off the 2024 Expert Insights Webinar series with a unique insight into youth empowerment on online platforms. Join online on Thursday, 15 February 2024 at 14:00 CET for a deep dive into the safety measures ZEPETO develops and implements in their metaverse to keep their users safe, informed, and empowered. 
  
What tools do they develop and use to detect harm? What features do they utilise to inform and empower their users? How do they educate their community about online safety? Speaker Elyse Lee, Head of Global Policy and Engagement at ZEPETO, provides a unique insight into what ZEPETO has done to empower the young people who navigate their metaverse. 

Further information and registration are available from the INHOPE website. 

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Wednesday, 6 March 2024 at 14:00 CET. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

The next Insafe/INHOPE joint training meeting will take place on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 April 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. As you know from previous Weekly Updates, the meeting will be held at the AIRPORT HOTEL OKĘCIE. We have a preferential rate available with the hotel: you can access this by going to hotel website (https://airporthotel.pl/en/), click book a room, then in the upper right corner click enter code. The code to book is EUN. 

The meeting will start at 13:00 on Wednesday 17 April and will finish at 17:00 on Thursday 18 April. There will be some optional activities taking place on the morning of Wednesday – a Media Literacy in the Classroom session and also a visit to the Polish helpline. 

Registration for the meeting will open at the beginning of February and we will share the agenda as well as information about the networking dinner that will take place on Wednesday (17 April). The Insafe Steering Committee meeting will take place on Friday morning (19 April). 

We wanted to share the information about the hotel in advance of registration opening so colleagues could already book accommodation and travel. If you need any further information at this point, please contact Karl. 

[FINAL CALL] Safer Internet Day public profile page updates
A final reminder that updates to your public profile can be submitted via the online form at https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/SaferInternetDay2024 (you can see your existing public SID profile at https://www.saferinternetday.org/in-your-country/). We will then make the changes for you and confirm when done.

Sharing network SID plans
Additional SIC plans not included in public profile updates can be shared/seen via the sheet here. If you have nothing additional to add of an internal nature, please just annotate column E with “Please refer to public profile”. 

Safer Internet Day key messages
A SID key messages document, which SICs are invited to use as the basis for their own materials, is available from the Join SID tab of the SID minisite.

Safer Internet Day logo set
Access the SID 2024 logo set and Guidelines on the use of the SID logo and related campaign assets from the Join SID tab of the SID minisite. Please remember, the SID logo should not be modified without prior permission, and the EC and joint Insafe/INHOPE logos should remain intact.

Safer Internet Day promo video
As usual, we encourage the network to use and disseminate the SID promo video. Please note that, should you wish to do so, we can also assist you in creating a version of the promo video dubbed in your national language and with subtitles, which you can use as additional campaigning material. If you are interested in this option, please contact Annarita at your earliest convenience.

Safer Internet Day dissemination plan (edition 2)
An updated edition of the dissemination plan for the 2024 edition of Safer Internet Day is now available (please note, this supersedes the first edition and just focuses on the two-week countdown to SID). It can be accessed from the SID minisite here (SID resources section).

Please note: if localising SID resources from the Canva file, please be sure to make local copies first and make your changes in your copies.

Safer Internet Day 2024 reporting template
The customary SID reporting template is now available to download from the BIK community (login first) for completion following the campaign. The deadline for returning the completed reporting template to the SID Helpdesk is COB on Tuesday, 5 March 2024 (or sooner if possible).

In case of questions
Further updates will follow in future Weekly Updates but in case of questions on any aspect of the Safer Internet Day 2024 campaign, please contact saferinternetday@betterinternetforkids.eu.

The EU policy roundtable, hosted by the menABLE project, will bring together a diverse group of public and private stakeholders, including policymakers, representatives from civil society, academia, industries, education and young people to discuss priorities in tackling gender-based violence (GBV) online. The primary objective of the roundtable is to present and discuss the research findings of the menABLE Research Report – an empirical study on understanding and responding to gender-based violence online; and the Educational Toolbox concept - a plug-and-play game to prevent and combat gender-based violence online.

The roundtable will take place on Tuesday, 20 February 2024 in Brussels and online. For more information about the event, agenda, speakers’ bios and registration, please visit the menABLE website. 

The European Digital and Media Literacy Conference is taking place from Tuesday, 27 February 2024 to Friday, 1 March 2024 in Brussels. It puts the many faces of digital and media literacy in the European spotlight during the Belgian EU presidency. The conference is focused on showcasing and exchanging initiatives, tools, projects and practices that can be integrated into your own work or policy. Meet and connect with professionals from around the EU and from all policy levels. Let’s strengthen European cooperation and the future of Digital and Media Literacy! Attending the conference is free, but you need to apply to ensure a good European spread of participants. SIC representatives are warmly invited! 

More information is available from www.medialiteracymatters.eu. In case of questions, please contact Andy Demeulenaere (Coordinator at Mediawijs).

• Sextortion on the rise among boys as young as 11: we need people to report (SIC MT)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 approaches: only two weeks left!
• Portuguese youth representation at Safer Internet Forum 2023 (SIC PT)
• Media ‘Ukkie’ Days campaign in the Netherlands (SIC NL)

Remember to submit your public portal blog articles to the BIK content mailbox; they count towards your SIC’s lump sum mechanism (LSM) criteria.

Helpline cases

• This week, the Irish Safer Internet Centre has submitted several helpline case studies. View them in the helpline case repository.

We hope that you are enjoying exploring the BIK platform. Please note, a BIK user guide is available to download from the BIK community (login first). In case of questions or issues when using any aspect of the BIK platform, please contact us using the contact link in the top right navigation area or email support@betterinternetforkids.eu.

IMPORTANT – if you have new starters who need to register for the platform, please direct them to www.betterinternetforkids.eu/register, in parallel with sending an email to support@betterinternetforkids.eu so that we can verify them and provide further instructions.

• Better Internet for Kids (BIK) public portal:
  www.betterinternetforkids.eu; #BIK; #BIKbulletin
• New BIK strategy (BIK+) on BIK portal:
  www.betterinternetforkids.eu/newbikstrategy; #BIKplus
• Safer Internet Forum (SIF) on BIK portal:
  www.betterinternetforkids.eu/sif;#SIF2023; #SaferInternetForum
• BIK Policy Map on BIK portal:
  www.betterinternetforkids.eu/bikmap; #BIKPolicyMap
• Safer Internet Day (SID) minisite:
  www.saferinternetday.org; #SID2024; #SaferInternetDay
• Positive Online Content (POCC) minisite:
  www.positiveonlinecontentforkids.eu; #positivecontent; #PositiveOnlineContent; #POCC
• BIK Youth minisite:
  www.bikyouth.eu; #BIKyouth; #Pledge2Youth
• Project Facebook profiles:
  Insafe, Safer Internet Day, Insafe network closed Facebook group, INHOPE
• Project X (formerly Twitter) profiles:
  @insafenetwork; @safeinternetday; @BIK_youth; @inhope_pr
• Project LinkedIn profile:
  Better Internet for Kids