The training meeting that took place parallel to the EUN 2006 roundtable “Imagining the future of schooling” and that kicked-off the next two years of the Insafe program brought together representatives of the European internet safety network (“awareness nodes”), specialists in ICT in education and stakeholders. For Insafe the future of schooling naturally encompasses media literacy and media literacy in turn cannot exclude internet & mobile safety awareness.

During the first day of the meeting nodes showcased good practice in terms of training the trainers, and on the second day the junction between internet safety & education was debated during a panel discussion. The panelists underlined the need for parents and educators to be able to help children and youth with problems that can arise from very common practices nowadays such as social networking, downloading audiovisual material, chatting, using mobiles etc. Everyone agreed that children and youth may be technically savvy, but lack the life experience of grown-ups. Some thought that the so called “digital gap” is partly an excuse for non involvement and contended that parents and teachers need to support and accompany young people in their use of technology.

On the occasion of the training meeting in Bruges, Insafe presented its Public Annual Report for the year 2006. One of the network milestones for the past year was the third edition of Safer Internet Day, a yearly event taking place on the second day of the second week of the second month. Consequently, next year, Safer Internet Day will be celebrated on Tuesday, 6 February 2007. Several actions are already under way: a survey on internet and mobile phone use was launched on 8 December, and around 180 schools are currently working in international partnerships on e-privacy, netiquette or images, in the context of a school Competition announced in October.

Sofia Aslanidou, Insafe