Almost 80 people representing the Insafe nodes, teachers and stakeholders gathered in Vienna to discuss empowerment of end users. The meeting opened with a presentation from the European Commission, followed up with a summary of results of the recent Insafe online survey on internet and mobile phone use habits of young cybercitizens based on a sample of almost 22,000 responses from 37 countries.

The afternoon session of the 1st day set the tone on teacher empowerment by introducing the preliminary outcomes of a teacher survey. These suggest that whilst teachers show confidence in their ability to teach media literacy, they feel uncomfortable touching upon sensitive and challenging subjects such as cyberbullying and social networking. The training participants broke out in groups interacting with a focus group of Austrian teachers in order to map efficient ways for the Insafe nodes to approach the educational sector.

On the same day, an inspiring presentation on gaming boosted the mood for discussions and participants once again split into groups to work on 6 distinct themes of particular interest to the network: gaming, social networking, e-privacy, mobile phone, media literacy and cyberbullying.

The second meeting day started with a technical showcase on safety and security features of operating systems presented by two key players of the telecommunications industry. The two cluster sessions that followed focused on the challenge of setting up an internet & mobile safety helpline and on the challenges of belonging to a network and some of the best practices entailed.

The Vienna spring meeting was brought to an end with a panel discussion on the role of advertising in the digital era and related concerns arising for internet and mobile safety awareness raisers. Nodes interacted with a communications strategist in a session that raised interesting prospects for the future.

The overriding theme of the meeting was the important role of educators and parents in moderating children’s and young people’s use of ICT and their responsibility to stay in touch with the way young citizens adopt online technologies. This conclusion underlines Insafe’s firm intention to reach out to educators and carers and make every effort to cater for their needs.