As part of the European year of education for digital citizenship and the Safer Internet Day 2025 celebrations, Tiago Lapa, assistant professor at the Department of sociology (ESPP) and integrated researcher CIES-Iscte - Centre for research and studies in sociology (ESPP), brings us a reflection on the challenges and opportunities in the European year of education for digital citizenship.
Please find attached a short report/summary from the helpline early warning group meeting which took place on 7th March 2025. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
You can also find a link to a recording of the meeting as well as relevant links to some of the issues that were raised.
On the occasion of Safer Internet Day on 11 February 2025, Saferinternet.at, Austria's Safer Internet Centre, presented a current study on the topic of sexual harassment online. The results clearly show that sexual harassment on the internet is a sad part of everyday life for many children and young people in Austria. Almost 40 per cent of 11 to 17-year-olds have been confronted with it.
ISIGURT.al Albania, starting from 2025, has launched a hotline for Safe Internet in Albania with the primary goal of reporting any incident of any form of online violence at the national level, being a trusted flagger for all global social media platforms.
The staff of ISIGURT.al, since October 2024, has been committed to conducting awareness sessions across Albania in more than 40 schools in the country, raising awareness among more than 800 students and over 200 parents.
Playing video games is the number one leisure activity for children and youth growing up today. The gaming arena can give them many positive experiences and have an impact on their future in various ways. The gaming arena is social and has changed a lot in the last decade. At the same time, the arena has been unsupervised and ignored by the adult world. As a result, there is a very bad culture for toxic behaviour online. Some claim it is just good fun and humour, but things have gone too far and this needs to be addressed.
A study conducted in Lithuania shows that children as young as 2 years old use screens for more than 1 hour a day on average, and 7-year-olds for more than 2 hours a day. Long screen time has a negative impact on other activities that are important for children's development, related to the child's emotional problems and behavioural difficulties, perceived sleep quality.
In cooperation with a major Internet Service Provider in Latvia, a set of materials was developed with the slogan "When you use the internet, remember about safety!". It helps 4-7-year-old children, guided by their educators and parents, to learn about safe and responsible use of the internet.
Internet traffic School (Netumferðarskólinn) is a part of the government's action plan for cybersecurity and was initially funded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Industry and Innovation. Around 9,000 children aged 6-13 years, 2,000 parents and 800 teachers in 80 different schools all around the country have participated in the Internet Traffic School for the past 1.5 years.
The handbook is aimed at middle school educators and focuses on developing students' digital citizenship. Through student-centred activities, it promotes responsible and safe internet use. The main sections of the handbook focus on the following topics:
Sors-moi de l’IA (Get Me Out of AI) is an engaging, educational escape game designed for educators, families and youth (ages 8+) to explore artificial intelligence (AI) in a fun and interactive way. Developed by Internet Sans Crainte for Safer Internet Day 2025, the game raises awareness of AI’s impact, ethics, and responsible use through critical thinking and problem-solving challenges.
