Better Internet for Kids

Children and young people are often victims of hate messages. At the same time, they also spread messages further. Even adults are often not up to date on which actions in the online sphere are relevant under criminal law. The information videos "Stand up against hate on the net!" and "Cyber bullying is punishable!" as well as the accompanying material provide young people with preventive information about hate on the net and cyber bullying. The videos show that the internet is not a lawless space. Young people are sensitised to these two topics and informed where they can get support.

This guide contains simple explanations of all important setting options and safety functions on Instagram. In addition, there are tips and discussion guides on the topic of age-appropriate media use. The guide is aimed at parents and carers who want to support children and young people in using Instagram safely.

Google Family Link is a free app that allows you to guide your child's use of Android devices (mobile phone and tablet). With Google Family Link, you can, among other things, define which content your child can access, track the location and set daily usage times. It thus falls under the category of technical child protection, although it is up to you how strict you want to be with the settings and whether you want to use it to monitor your child or merely protect them from unpleasant content.

YouTube Kids is a child-friendly version of YouTube with some practical settings. On the one hand, YouTube Kids only offers children's videos, on the other hand, the video enjoyment can be better controlled and monitored.

Discord is a platform for communicating and exchanging with each other. Users can write messages free of charge, create and manage chat groups and make voice and video calls. In this practical step-by-step privacy guideline we show you the most important settings for safe use.

Three videos were developed by Austrian’s helpline Rat auf Draht in order to raise awareness: It is not ok to share sexual explicit content. Young people have the right to say “No” and claim “without me”: leave us out of such behavior! These videos should encourage all young people not to suffer and ignore such behavior but stand up and tell all offenders: “Without me!”

The videos were developed for the project #besafeonline and can be found on the YouTube channel of helpline Rat auf Draht.

Video "Nicht mit mir! - Sexting - dein Foto gehört dir"

Young people are intensively concerned with their own image management, with how they are perceived by others. Social networks such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram in particular, but also messengers such as WhatsApp and Snapchat, provide a stage for this. However, the self-portrayal of young people on the Internet is not always only positive. By emulating seemingly unattainable role models, feelings of inferiority and envy can also arise. Cyber bullying is also not atypical in this context.

The handbook "Digitization and Climate" takes a closer look at the topic of environmental awareness in the digital world. It questions what the climate has to do with digital media and young people. The aim is to provide suggestions for conscious living in the area of tension between digitization and climate. It is important to know the connections between digitalization and climate and to be able to assess the consequences of one's own decisions and actions.

The Austrian awareness center Saferinternet.at inquires each year: Which social networks do young people in Austria use? Which platforms are trending, which get less important? The results are published with the Youth Internet Monitor (www.jugendinternetmonitor.at). The survey was conducted in November/December 2020 – after the second lockdown. Young people went to school and had more options to meet their friends. 400 young people between 11 and 17 years old were asked. The survey is representative of the younger generation of Austria.

Already in its 3rd edition, the flyer "online hate" provides information on the legal background of punishable postings. This new edition takes into account the "Hate on the Net" legislative package that came into force in 2021. The Internet is a space where users can freely express their opinions. Regardless of this fundamental freedom of expression, however, there are also clear limits here; those of respectful interaction in the context of interpersonal communication on the Internet (netiquette) on the one hand, and those set by the legal framework on the other.