Better Internet for Kids

The webinar aims to help parents become better at guiding children and teens to develop healthier habits of creating and sharing content on social media.
Although harmless on the surface (lots of pictures of animals, funny memes, fun songs), these networks were designed for an emotionally mature audience. It also often becomes difficult for adults to manage a large number of interpersonal relationships at the same time, which can lead to deep emotional turmoil; especially for children and adolescents.

The video shows the 6 rights that children have on the internet according to the General comment No. 25 (2021) on children’s rights in relation to the digital environment. Each of the six young Romanian youth panelists present a right and an example of how that particular right is applied.

Nearly a third of children believe that fake news cannot be presented on TV or on news sites. Half of the children rarely or never check the truth of the information found online.

Today's children live in a world completely different from previous generations. Relationships between them are mediated by chats, social applications and virtual channels that parents almost never enter. The purpose of the webinar is to discover the role of parents and teachers in the lives of digital natives, who apparently need adult less, than previous generations. The topics discussed were:
a. The needs of digital natives, as well as their rights and obligations, at school and in the family
b. The role of parents and different ways of managing situations in the family

The video aims to help parents become more aware and confident when dealing preventively with more sensitive topics with their children using technology. We focus on unavoidable issues such as accidentally finding traumatic content, or interacting with people who are extremely adept at enticing minors for illegal purposes.
The topics addressed:

1. False profiles and online child safety. Contrary to the real-life friends we see and with whom we can communicate, on the internet, behind a profile, there may be people with negative intentions.

This material is intended for teachers, regardless of specialization or prior knowledge on the use of the Internet and digital devices. The information it contains will be useful for supporting instructive-educational activities about children's online rights and teenagers, part of the topic of using the internet in a safe, useful and creative way.

A web series by the Italian Safer Internet Centre. Each episode focuses on a different element of online safety, from strategies for handling cyberbullying to recognising and reporting unsafe/inappropriate interactions and content (e.g zoombombing, body shaming, sexting, and so on).

How can we recognise, prevent and combat cyberbullying?

It is important for adults to find time to understand how to recognise cyberbullying and how to react appropriately to the situation and age of the child involved. The issues addressed were:

The video presents possible online risks for children and teenagers and ways of preventing or combating them.

This video targets children and teenagers, with the purpose of presenting online risks such as cyberbullying or excessive use. It gives concrete examples of how these risks affect children on the internet and advice on how they can react when they encounter a harmful situation online. 

The video is intended for adolescents and teaches them about online risks and ways to cope with them.

The video presents the case of a teen girls whose boyfriend sent their friends nude pictures of her and because of that she had to close all her accounts in social media, or the case of another girl who was cyberbullied and had to create new accounts on all social platforms to escape the situation she was in, but also other topics related to technical difficulties or different forms of online abuse. They can all be sorted out if teens seek help and guidance from specialists.