Empowering and protecting children and young people is the main objective of the Safer Internet Programme, which has been running from 1999. Over the years it has funded a large number of projects, including an annual conference on online safety issues.
The Safer Internet Forum 2010 took place in Luxembourg, on the 21st and 22nd of October. This year’s topic was children’s safety online and was targeted at the education sector, parents, NGOs, government and industry, law-enforcement agencies, as well as children and teenagers themselves. There were 3 parallel sessions on 21st October and a plenary session on 22nd October. I was assigned to observe the “Evidence of online risks: Cyberbullying and grooming” session moderated by Sonia Livingstone.
The focus was on the results of two major research projects funded by the Safer Internet Programme: EUKidsOnline II, which surveyed children and parents in 25 European countries about internet use, and European Online Grooming Project, the first European research project that studies the characteristics and behaviour of sexual offenders who have used the internet to groom young people.
The presence of the Pan-European Youth panel including young people from all the Member States, Norway, Iceland and Russia, as well as the European Panel of Parents made the conference memorable. Not only school, but also parents have an important role to play when it comes to children’s education about the responsible use of the Internet. Increasing parental awareness and giving the children the chance to make their opinions heard at this meeting was a fruitful idea. Their conference preceding discussions in the panels were fed in the debates at the forum as concerns, suggestions or merely opinions.
The presented materials let us know that a lot has been done in order to fight with this phenomenon of cyberbullying .
“Causes and consequences of cyberbullying – how to best cope with it” seemed to be the most interesting part because it emphasised what it has being doing regarding digital bullying. One of the great ideas implemented was CyberMentors created by Beatbullying staff. This programme creates groups of young people that helps, assists and supports their peers in their schools and communities. They work together with Senior CyberMentors and Counsellors from 8am to 2 pm daily.
Other innovative ideas referred to the use of music, theatre and games based on associations used as a basis of discussion or as methods of introduction to basic safety rules on the Internet.
The SIF 2010 has achieved its goal to share results of researches, knowledge and tools, opinions not only from specialists, but also from parents and children, and ideas of educational approaches included or not in the curriculum. Anyway, cyberbullying is not a closed subject and the Safer Internet Programme has as one of its permanent commitments promoting the safe use of the Internet.
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