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Insafe Newsletter

Issue 33: March 2008, On Internet Safety
•Editorial   • News  •Events  •Country Focus  •About Insafe  •Subscribe
Editorial                                                                   On Internet Safety

Welcome to the Insafe Newsletter!
 
   NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE



Some thoughts on Safer Internet Day 2008

The twelfth of February was declared Safer Internet Day. The initiative taken by the European Commission is meant to sensitise society concerning the (un)safe use of ICT. However, the emphasis lies solely on communication issues: safe chat, sexual abuse, cyberbullying, pornography on the Internet, etc...

To promote Safer Internet Day, the Insafe network published an interesting video clip. We see a computer mouse on a table and a dozen stereotyped hands working with the mouse: a doctor, a motorcar driver, a hippie girl, a musician, etc. The idea is to show that there are people who have different purposes for the web, suggesting that there are also people with bad intentions active. At the same time, on Safer Internet Day, a benchmark report was published about different content filters.

Safe ICT use is a complex question and has to do with more than safe chat and harmful content issues. There are also the areas of copyright, technical matters such as spam, viruses, spyware and other malware. eSafety also deserves its own healthy computer spot. How is it that on every occasion we focus solely on harmful content?

This narrow focus starts with the choice of name: it is not “Safe Internet Day”, but “SafER Internet Day”. This suggests that the internet is actually unsafe. I find that a badly founded assumption. Every kind of technology can be used for good or bad ends. Abuses are well documented and should not be underestimated; but most of the community uses the Internet exactly in the way it is designed to be used: to communicate, to exchange information, to play online games, to share ideas, things, opinions, for enjoyment…

Read more

Jan De Craemer,
Ministry of the Flemish Community, Education department

Safety first


dead monitor
Paris court shuts down "rate a teacher" web site
Following legal action by teachers' trade unions, the internet site note2b.com has been taken down and the unions awarded a symbolic Euro in damages each.
Although it was recognised that students have a right to free speech, the court took the view that the publication of the full details of the teachers constituted a breach of data protection legislation. A top 10 list of teachers was published following the marks they were awarded by their students but the comments entered were considered inappropriate. Read more

Albanian flagACTSEC and Youth Group launch “Make the Internet Safe for Children” campaign in Albania  
Tirana, 11 March 2008 - Under the framework of the National Campaign "Make the Internet Safe for Children" the Albanian Coalition against Child Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children (ACTSEC), the ACTSEC Youth Group and CRCA / DCI Albania organised an Open Forum with students from the University of Tirana.
Read more

Moderator training in FinlandFinnish Internet Awareness (FiA) project initiates moderator training
The first pilot training programme for content providers and moderators of social networking sites targeted at children and youth was organised in Finland in February, and the experiences drawn from it were encouraging.
Read more


Slovak node publishes safety tip flyers for children
The Slovak node has prepared a fact sheet, which is to be included in children’s school books and workbooks. The flyer will be distributed among pupils across the Slovak Republic. The dissemination process will be organised by teachers, and the awareness raising campaign will cover not just children, but also inform adults on the dangers of internet use. Read more


Greek ParliamentNode called to speak to Greek Parliament  
The Special Permanent Committee on Technology and Research of the Greek Parliament organised a series of sessions around the Internet and in particular the issue of Internet addiction.
Among the experts, the Committee invited the Greek Node’s Coordinator, Veronica Samara, to speak.
Read more
Safer Internet Day 2008
Reviewing Safer Internet Day 2008 
The Activity report on Safer Internet Day 2008 has now been published and is available for download. It is available from the main SID page on the INSAFE portal, along with other information which will give you an opportunity to review a range of the day's activities. Go to SID 2008 page

presentation in MaltaSafer Internet Day Celebrations in Malta
Safer Internet Day 2008 was celebrated on 26 February at Playmobil Funpark in Hal Far. Although a little later than the rest of Europe, the activity turned out to be a great success. The response from the children who participated was positive, as was the response from the media representatives that covered the event.
Read more
 
Safer Internet Day 2008 in FinlandSafer Internet Day 2008 in Finland
On Safer Internet Day, 12 February, a public event was held in a shopping mall in downtown Helsinki. The public had an opportunity to approach the experts about the safe use of the internet: such as how to ensure that the computer is technically protected; children as Internet users; and how safe it is to use online services. Project workers at the stand gave out brochures and visitors could take a look at the website of the information security day project and play the new internet game.

International Youth Advisory CongresstInternational Youth Advisory Congress (IYAC)
17 - 21 July 2008. The IYAC will be hosted by CEOP in conjunction with the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT) at a secure venue near London and will consist primarily of interactive workshop based sessions for young people.
The theme of this event will be Online Safety and Security. The vision is that we will bring together up to two hundred young people from within the UK and across the global community to share their experiences of on-line and mobile technologies We aim to give a voice to young people in a forum where representatives from government, law enforcement agencies and industry will not only hear it, but also be encouraged and motivated to act on it.
Read more

Cyber Peace Initiative "Young People in the Internet and Mobile Age:
Safe and Empowered!"
The Cyber Peace Initiative of the Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement organised a Conference on Internet Safety for Children and Youth entitled: "Young People in the Internet and Mobile Age: Safe and Empowered!"
It was held on 24th – 25th March 2008 in Cairo at the Smart Village Conference Centre. 

STOP cyberbullying campaignSTOP cyberbullying campaign launched in Poland
A third “Child on the Web” campaign was launched at the end of January in Poland. Whereas the first campaign addressed the problem of dangerous contacts online and the second covered the problem of children coming into contact with harmful content online, the third one concerns the problem of cyberbullying. Read more


E-learning coursesE-learning courses on Internet safety
A new e-learning course on safe internet use for children was launched on Safer Internet Day in Poland.
The course named "Safe adventure with Internet" is designed for primary school pupils aged 7-11. The e-learning modules complement the node’s previous projects - the story line is based on the Sieciaki.pl project (www.sieciaki.pl) - and  provide material for three 45-minutes lessons. Course users are accompanied in their adventure by four Sieciaki characters, a team of wise-web children who know the rules of safe surfing and are the users’ guides throughout the course. Read more

Insafe is a European network of 23 nodes in 23 countries that are dedicated to raising awareness of internet safety. It is coordinated by the European Schoolnet and supported by the European Commission through the Safer Internet Programme.

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