Better Internet for Kids

What is considered child prostitution on the Internet? As a parent, how to talk about this with children? How to act preventively? It is important to familiarize yourself with the strong risks of this behavior.

The Better Internet for Kids (BIK) reviews of the year are typically released to coincide with Safer Internet Day celebrations each year.

These annual reports provide an overview of a multitude of stakeholder efforts to both protect and empower children and young people in their digital lives over the past year, when BIK has focused on making sure that young people are protected, respected, and equipped with the skills they need to thrive in the digital world.

Some of the highlights of 2022 include:

A web page with new educational material for SaferInternetDay 2023. It contains lesson plans, e-book, quizzes, video, posters and leaflets dedicated to disinformation. The material is divided according to the ages is addressed: small kids (4-8 years old), kids in primary school (9-12 years old), teenagers, parents and educators.

The Dutch EOKM conducted an online poll on www.scholieren.com amongst teenagers aged 12-14 to find out how they respond to classmates forwarding them nude images. The results were as follows:

- 19% I speak up and let them know this is not OK
- 23% I forward the image
- 30% I don't act at all
- 28% I click away

The EOKM developed several storyboards on harmful content to be posted on social media. Since 2022 the EOKM (SIC-NL) has expanded its focus from online online sexual abuse and harassment to include harmful content. As part of this expansion, a re-run of the 2021 campaign was developed and focused on harmful content. This content was posted on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat as well as some media outlets.

Do you suspect that nude photos are circulating in the WhatsApp groups of your students? What can you do as a school or as a teacher? With this educational escape room on unwanted sexting called 'You can make it stop' in collaboration with WIS Education, you bring the conversation to the classroom in a safe and interactive way. Pupils within teacher training, special needs education and high school learn what they can do when confronted with unwanted sexting and how to prevent this.

Stephanie explains is a website where difficult or challenging topics are explained in an easy way. For example, making friends or money matters. In collaboration with Helpwanted, the helpline department of the Dutch EOKM, a module focused on online flirting was developed for teenagers and adults with a learning disability.

For secondary special education students, the online world offers opportunities to participate in society. So it is important for them to develop those digital skills that are appropriate for the times and will help them in the society of the future. Teachers face the challenge of paying attention to this in a clear and appealing way. Online Masters helps with this. It offers meaningful lessons for secondary special education. The various modules cover the use of digital and online technologies and the issues involved.

ScamCheck is the Dutch version of a tool developed by ScamAdviser. This tool can be accessed through our website Veiliginternetten.nl. By making this tool available in the Netherlands, we collectively ensure a safer Internet. Consumers can enter a link and are shown the probability that a website is trustworthy or looks like scam, phishing or malware.

The reporting platform Point de Contact has published its 2021 annual report on the volume of reports received and processed as well as on the trends observed in cybercrime. This report is also an opportunity to highlight the work carried out throughout the year 2021.
Here are some key figures: 81,416 URLs received in 2021 (+35% compared to2020), 21,109 URLs qualified as sexual exploitation of minors (+78% compared to 2020) and 20,330 URLs were forwarded to law enforcement authorities (+116% compared to 2020).