The Applied Research and Communications Fund /ARC Fund/,  has established  the Bulgarian Hotline for fighting illegal and harmful for children content in Internet in May 2006 within the framework of a project, co-financed by the Safer Internet Programme of the European Commission.  From then ARC Fund has acted as a de facto awareness node too.

In June 2008, the National Awareness Node - Safenet.bg - was established by ARC Fund in consortium with three other Bulgarian organisations – Association Roditeli, Bulgarian Federation for Electronic Sports, DeConi Advertising Agency, within the framework of its next project, co-financed by the Safer Internet plus Programme of the European Commission.

Now the Hotline and the Awareness Node are operating jointly as a national Safer Internet Centre. One of the awareness node’s main aims is to raise the visibility and efficiency of the Hotline.

ARC Fund is a full member of International Association of Internet Hotline operators INHOPE as well as of the European network of Safer Internet Centres INSAFE.

The Bulgarian Safer Internet Centre coordinates various awareness raising, training, research and information activities assisted by its advisory board – the Public Council on safer Internet Use. The Public Council consists of 20 members – 3 ministries, 2 state agencies, 3 mobile operators, 2 business associations and several NGOs.

The Bulgarian Awareness Node is involved in a number of activities, among others:

National campaigns

The Bulgarian Awareness Centre coordinates the celebration of the Safer Internet Day in the country. It also continuously cooperates with a large group of stakeholders on a variety of other campaigns – i.e. the annual ‘Kids Safe in Internet’ jointly with Microsoft Bulgaria. The campaign includes media campaigns, events all over the country and online competitions for children with prize awarding ceremony.

Education

From September 2007, the Bulgarian Node has been implementing the project “Real and Virtual Violence: Prevention through interactive education in schools” with the financial support of the Swiss Oak Foundation and the Safer Internet Programme of the European Commission, in partnership with “Roditeli Association” and the support of Microsoft- Bulgaria. Within the framework of the project a methodological guidebook for educators has been prepared by experts in psychology, pedagogy and IT. The guidebook contains 25 modular lessons for 5-12 grade students and presents various topics connected to recognition and reaction to violence in the real and virtual world.  The methodological guidebook was reviewed by the Institute of Psychology from the Bulgarian Academy of Science. It was officially approved by the Ministry of Education and Science for use in schools.  In the schools year 2008/2009 some 600 lessons were delivered to more than 2,500 pupils in 12 schools.

Read more: http://www.safenet.bg/news_en.php?a=7

Youth Panel

The Bulgarian Youth Panel consists of children and young people aged 15-18 years old.  They are elected representatives of schools co-ordinated by a professional psychologist working in a Sofia municipality.

The panel members are being consulted on latest trends in online activities of children. Awareness materials and tools are tested and evaluated by them.

New knowledge

The Bulgarian Awareness Centre is conducting regular surveys in schools involved in the Real and Virtual Violence Prevention project. The surveys serve to identify changes in online uses and habits by children and also for measuring the effectiveness of the safer Internet education provided by the Node.

See abstracts in English:

http://www.safenet.bg/news_en.php?a=8

http://www.safenet.bg/news_en.php?a=23

New tools

The educational safer Internet game “I am online” was developed and made available online as well as on CDs for use in schools in co-operation with the partner of the Public Council on Safer Internet – the Consumers’ Association. The team of the children web-portal Dechica.com developed the game following ideas from the children themselves. It teaches kids safe behaviour in Internet, presents the main dangers online and shows ways to avoid them. The game is accessible online through the web-portal of the National Awareness Node and through the children portal Dechica.com.        

The partner Delphin foundation developed the first Bulgarian parental control software ‘Child Defender’. The National Awareness Node was actively involved in popularizing and free dissemination of the program that enables parents to block access to dangerous websites and to follow their children activities in Internet in order to prevent possible threats. The program is free to download from the special site www.childdef.com . It is easy to install and to set the various options. The program became quite popular as it is in Bulgarian language and parents can easily orientate themselves in the different functions.

Report illegal online content to the national Hotline:  http://web112.net

Visit the Bulgarian Safer Internet Centre portal: www.safenet.bg

The coordinator of the Bulgarian Awareness Centre:

The non-governmental Applied Research and Communications Fund is co-ordinator of the Bulgarian Awareness Centre.