What is SAFER INTERNET DAY (SID)?

Safer Internet Day is a yearly event, taking place in the month of February. It is organised by Insafe, the European internet safety network. In 2007, 43 countries from all over the world participated in Safer Internet Day. The 5th edition of SID will take place on 12 February 2008.

Who can enter the competition?

Groups of children and young people from 5 to 19 years of age can compete in the appropriate age category: 5-10 years, 11-14 years and 15-19 years. The competition is open to schools, leisure clubs, youth groups, training institutes etc.
Participants may be from any of the Insafe network countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States.
Contestants from third countries participating in Safer Internet Day may also take part. Please check this website for relevant updates.

Registration

You will have to register for the competition when you upload your group’s project between 14-20 January 2008 (please see sections Deadline & What you need to do).

What you need to do?
1. Define the leader of the group
The work of the participants should be coordinated by a group-leader: a teacher, youth worker, trainer or other over 18 years of age.

2. Express your interest!
Send an email to your national node to tell them you would like to participate. This is not a registration, only an expression of interest that will help us foresee & manage the volume of participants. An automated email will be sent to you with the competition guidelines.

3. Create a project:
The task for the contestants is to create an awareness message on the safe and ethical use of information and communication technologies, namely of the internet and mobile phones. Contestants should be inspired by the theme “Life online is what You make of IT” and show how the behaviour of users has an impact on the online environment.

4. Choose the right file *format
Please note that a file destined for printing can be a text file, an image file or a multimedia file combining text with images.

File size: Your files should not exceed 8 MB
Time limit: maximum length = 2 minutes

5. Make your project understandable
Accepted languages are the official national language(s) of the countries participating in the SID 2008 competition. Just remember that if you want to be selected as a European winner, your project should be easy to understand even for people that do not speak your language. Important: When you upload your project to the project gallery, you will be asked to provide a short summary of your project (about 100 words) in English, French or German.

6. Prepare a thumbnail
Create an image file depicting your project (an icon) in gif or jpg format. It should be no higher than 100 pixels. This will serve as a preview of your project in the Project Gallery.

7. Register for the competition and upload your project (see chapter Deadlines)
Between 14-20 January 2008 you should register for the competition and upload your project to the Safer Internet Day 2008 project gallery that will be available at the following URL: http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/sid.htm

Deadlines

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Winners & Prizes

A total of 6 European winners will be selected, 1 first-place and 1 runner-up for each of three age categories: 5-10 years, 11-14 years, 15-19 years.

The winners will receive prizes as follows:

• 1st place winners: 2000 euros
  
• Runners-up: 1000 euros

The prize money will be used for ICT equipment, (hardware and software) and/or hands-on training.

Between 21-25 January national short-listed entries will be sent off to the European round. Electronic voting will run from 1 to 7 February 2008 for the selection of the 6 European winners to be announced on 12 February 2008.


What about copyright?

When using material created by others, such as photos, music, images, text etc., contestants should ask for permission from the author, illustrator, composer, etc. and add a “credits” page with all the copyright notices. Be careful, you may have to contact the original author for permission. Warn youngsters that infringement of copyright means automatic disqualification and help them send off their request for copyright permission.
For information on copyright for school projects click here (http://saferinternet.org/shared/data/pdf/copyright.pdf).
To know more about copyright and related rights you can also consult the Wikipedia:

"Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. At its most general, it is literally "the right to copy" an original creation. In most cases, these rights are of limited duration. The symbol for copyright is © (Unicode U+00A9), and in some jurisdictions may alternatively be written as either (c) or (C)."

What about privacy?

While creating your project, bear in mind that it will be made available to a wide public. Therefore, you may want to think of privacy. Do not include sensitive personal-data, such as names or addresses of participants when you create a clip that will be broadcast. Have a look at the e-privacy FAQ at:
http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/safety_issues/faqs/privacy.htm

Contacts & Support

For questions about the SID 2008 Competition, please contact your national Insafe awareness node.

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