Paris book launch for young internet safety authors The young writers of the 16 winning national stories of the Insafe Friendship and Magic competition attended an awards ceremony in Paris on 9 December 2005. They were presented with copies of their book, which was officially launched at the same event.

The winners from each of the 16 participating countries had been chosen in ceremonies conducted nationally throughout summer. In Denmark the Royal Princess Alexandra awarded the prizes and in Iceland it was the President, Mr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson.

At the European prize-giving, Horst Forster, Director at the Commission’s directorate for Information Society and Media represented Commissioner Viviane Reding, who was the patron of the competition.  He presented the winners with prizes at a special lunch held at the EMINENT conference, and declared the official launch of their book. 

Mr Forster said:

"It is an honour for me to present the young authors with their excellent book on internet safety.  The European Commission is proud to support their work and we hope the book gives many hours of pleasure to all who read the stories."

The competition also counted on the support of Microsoft, and Disneyland Paris, who hosted the winners the following day.  The winners also had the chance to visit the Eiffel tower and other famous sights of Paris before returning home.

The book will be disseminated throughout the world with the help of the European Commission, Insafe awareness nodes, the Council of Europe, and Microsoft.