 | | | | | Welcome to the 26th edition of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) bulletin. This quarterly bulletin aims to keep you informed of safer and better internet issues and opportunities across Europe and beyond. In each edition, we'll bring you a mix of news, research and resources from many of the key stakeholders in keeping children and young people safe online, be they European Safer Internet Centres (SICs), research organisations, industry partners, policy makers or experts in the field.
In each edition of the BIK bulletin, we look at a topical issue – in this edition, we consider children's rights in the digital environment and, especially, how we can move from theory towards practice. While the digital revolution has provided many opportunities for child empowerment, participation and expression online, it has also raised some concerns as to how they can exercise their rights in the digital environment. Our focus article considers some of the research evidence alongside practical approaches.
Also in this edition, get involved in the European Commission's consultation on the Digital Decade to establish a set of digital principles for 2030, find out how children and young people are already having their say in our #DigitalDecade4YOUth focus groups, and look out for our upcoming campaign to gather similar input from parents, carers and teachers. Providing a further spotlight on this important consultation work, join us at the Safer Internet Forum (SIF) 2021, taking place online in October 2021, where we'll hear from a number of stakeholders and experts, and most importantly children and young people themselves, on their visions and priorities for the internet of the future - find registration details below.
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And, if you have any comments on this resource, or would like to contribute to a future edition of the BIK bulletin, please contact us. | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | | | | | | | | | About the Better Internet
for Kids Project | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the European Commission (EC) is co-funding a range of better/safer internet services, both at the European and the national level. Building on the European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children as published in 2012, the BIK core service platform aims to bring together European stakeholders in the field to work collaboratively in achieving the goal of a better internet for all. This bulletin is just one of a range of tools and services provided. Keep following us across all BIK communication channels - see links in the footer of this email. | | | | | |  | | | | | | FOCUS ON | | | | Children's rights in the digital environment: Moving from theory to practice | | | | | | | | | | | Children and young people are increasingly using technologies to share their views, engage with others, participate and search for information online, often on a daily basis. Undoubtedly, the digital revolution provides many opportunities for child empowerment, participation and expression, but it also raises concerns on how they can exercise their rights in the digital environment.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC Committee) has recently adopted General Comment No. 25 to adapt it to a new context, as children's rights should be addressed and considered equally in the digital environment. More specifically, it claims that children should be at the core of the consultation process of decision-making and development of laws and policies, as well as digital products. Aside from the legal right, there are many other compelling reasons to involve children in decision making. Allowing children to voice their opinions could strengthen representative democracy. It also leads to better decision making, increased accountability, and it may serve to promote children's protection.
Dr Valerie Verdoodt, a postdoctoral fellow in law at the London School of Economics and an affiliate fellow at the Law and Technology research group at Ghent University, has recently produced a best-practice guide in the framework of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) project: Children's rights in the digital environment: Moving from theory to practice. In it, she gives an overview of the existing efforts in child participation and digital policymaking, and formulates best-practice guidelines for engaging children in the conceptualisation and operationalisation of their digital rights. We provide an overview here.
Recent EU and international policy developments regarding children's rights in the digital world
In March 2021, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) adopted General Comment No. 25 on Children's Rights in Relation to the Digital Environment. It gives a comprehensive summary on how to act to realise children's rights in a digital world. The key points of this General Comment include that children should also participate in decision-making processes that might impact their rights in the digital environment. In addition, it stresses the importance of research in this area and encourages regular monitoring of the impact of the digital environment on children's lives.
Previously, in July 2018, the Council of Europe (CoE) released a Recommendation on Guidelines to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the child in the digital environment. The document aims to assist the Member States of the CoE in adopting a comprehensive, strategic, rights-based approach by establishing the following guidelines: - States must respect, protect and fulfil the right of the child to privacy and data protection.
- Children should be informed about their rights in a child-friendly way.
- States and other stakeholders should actively engage children to participate in a meaningful way.
- States should ensure that educators, parents, the child's peers, and industries that gather personal data are aware of and respect the child's right to privacy and data protection.
More recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing challenges and inequalities and created new ones with regards to the rights and wellbeing of children and young people. In response to these difficulties, the EU has developed a new Strategy on the rights of the child which provides a clear framework for action by the EU and Member States. The strategy was developed together with children and aims to strengthen child participation in decision-making processes at the EU, national, regional and local levels.
Another recent initiative proposed by the European Commission is to create a Digital Decade, underpinned by a Digital Compass containing a vision, targets and avenues for a successful digital transformation of Europe by 2030. As part of this, the EU will develop a comprehensive set of digital principles for all citizens by the end of 2021. Embedded within this initiative – and the current consultation process to shape its development - is the recognition that it is crucial that digital technologies and services respect and enable children to realise their rights.
How to ensure meaningful child and youth participation in theory and practice
Children's right to be heard in Article 12 CRC
According to Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the right of children to be heard and participate is not only a right in itself, but also one of the four guiding principles of the children's rights framework. This general principle includes the following guidelines: It is crucial to note that, in this model, children do not have the definitive say in the decision-making process; adults remain responsible for the outcome, while being informed and influenced by their views.
Existing models/benchmarks for meaningful participation
According to Lundy's Model of Participation, by Laura Lundy, Professor of international children's rights at the School of Education at the Queen's University of Belfast, the successful implementation of Article 12 CRC requires that the implementation of four interrelated features is envisaged. Lundy examines these elements in four chronological steps in the realisation of the right to participation: - Space. Children are given safe child-friendly and age-appropriate physical and emotional environments to express their views.
- Voice. Children are provided with the information they need to be able to shape a view, and are informed on a variety of options to decide how they want to express or not to express themselves.
- Audience. Children can reach the right audience, their views and recommendations are communicated and heard.
- Influence. Сhildren's views are taken seriously and acted upon as appropriate, and feedback is provided.
In order to define meaningful and effective child participation, it is essential to examine a rights-based approach more thoroughly. Within this model, age is not perceived as an obstacle to participation. Young people should feel free to express their views, using both verbal and non-verbal forms of communication. However, the weight and impact of these views align with the age and level of maturity. In relation to this approach, the CRC Committee proposes nine basic quality requirements that are to be acknowledged while exercising children's rights in consultations or research projects: - Transparent and informative. It is crucial to ensure that children possess transparent and explicit information on the ways they can exercise their rights, as well as sufficient understanding on the matter.
- Voluntary. Children should be informed that their participation is not a duty, and they are free to terminate their involvement in the consultation process, without feeling obliged or pressured.
- Respectful. A vital requirement to ensure a smooth consultation process is to embrace children's ideas and treat them with respect, as well as promote respectful attitudes towards all participants.
- Relevant. Children are requested to address and reflect on those issues that they define as relevant to their life experience, knowledge and skills.
- Child-friendly. It is necessary to consider children's capacities, age groups, and timelines in order to adjust the working methods to the children's needs.
- Inclusive. The consultation process should be thoroughly inclusive and equal, as well as responsive to challenges that might occur.
- Supported by training. In order to support children throughout the process and provide them with efficient guidance, adult facilitators of consultations or participatory research need preparation, skills and support.
- Safe and sensitive to risk. Adults should establish a safe environment for children not to feel vulnerable, or be exposed to violence, exploitation, and other negative outcomes.
- Accountable. Children are provided with feedback on how their views were considered and acted upon, and how they can potentially continue following-up on those processes.
Among various approaches to addressing children's participation, UNICEF gives special attention to adolescents within its Conceptual Framework for Measuring Outcomes of Adolescent Participation. - Consultative participation allows adolescents to contribute to developing legislation, policy or services through consultation by participating in online surveys or outreach programmes.
- Collaborative participation offers adolescents an opportunity to collaborate with adults and work together on joint decisions.
- Adolescent-led participation is led by adolescents and provides them with a safe and comfortable environment to initiate their own agenda. Adolescents can use social media as a tool to participate in the digital environment with minimal or no supervision from adults.
In line with UNICEF's conceptual framework, the definition of meaningful adolescent participation is measured by four elements: sense of self-worth; experience of being listened to and taken seriously; making decisions; and civic/public engagement.
A practical tool developed by the Council of Europe, aimed at supporting professionals in implementing Article 12 CRC, is Listen-Act-Change – Council of Europe Handbook. The key objective of the handbook is to emphasise a rolling process that encourages adults and children to work together at every level and involves repeated cycles of planning: connecting with children; identifying issues; investigating children's views; taking action; follow-up actions; reflection; evaluation; and starting the process again.
Recent experiences in an internet policy development context (practical)
In order to mainstream child participation in practice, several consultations with children and young people have already been conducted in recent years. One of these practical examples is UNICEF's 2017 State of the World's Children report aimed at identifying the positive and negative impact of technology on children. The report relied on both consultative and collaborative participation of children. The consultation with children was conducted by reaching out to 63,000 respondents worldwide aged between 13 and 24. The survey addressed four questions to help define what children like or dislike the most about using the internet. In addition, a collaborative approach was used and, more specifically, workshops were organised where participants engaged in several activities such as creative exercises, scenario-based exercises, group discussions and surveys.
The contribution of children and young people to the 2017 report was very valuable and helped to identify several outcomes that would not have been feasible without their participation: - A comprehensive summary on positive and negative elements of the use of technology was achieved and can be applied to further research, policy and practice.
- The researchers suggest engaging children and experts at the national level in the process of analysing and interpreting data.
- Moving forward, the survey can be used as an efficient tool to encourage children to start thinking about the topic, and not only for the collection of data.
- The report suggests changing the approach of consultations to more individualised ones. More specifically, this can help children to focus more on their personal concerns and worries, rather than the 'risks' they might encounter in the digital environment.
A second report that markedly demonstrates children's contribution to internet policy is the Council of Europe report on child consultations: It's Our World: Children's views on how to protect their rights in the digital environment. This document focuses on the implementation of exact steps to be taken to facilitate direct and systematic child participation by applying a rights-based approach. Within this initiative, children were consulted in small groups by an adult facilitator and were requested to give their views on their rights and the digital environment, as well as work collaboratively to share their ideas with "policy makers in Strasbourg".
Analysing the process of the consultation, several trends were observed. For instance, children and young people from diverse backgrounds expressed similar views, recommendations and risks such as cyberbullying, online grooming, and hate speech. Also, most children had trouble defining a clear line between reality and the online world and expressed their concern on the lack of digital literacy in the state curriculum.
Moving forward, several outcomes from this initiative can be added to the best-practice guidelines: - Real scenarios and real actors encourage child participation and increase empowerment. It provides children with the idea that they can make a difference and be heard by real policy makers.
- It is important to adjust topics and activities implemented in the consultation to ensure an inclusive environment.
- A focus on addressing the child rights framework more generally rather than only child participation is seen as an efficient way to interpret children's views.
- Having a variety of ways through which children can communicate their ideas is essential.
Another report has been prepared under General Comment No. 25 (cf.section 1.1), and has reached 709 children from all over the world during the consultation process. The consultation was structured as face-to-face workshops where children could participate in various activities such as discussions, scenario-based activities and creative writing. The key element of this approach was to get an understanding of how digital technology impacts their rights and what can be done to protect them by enabling children to share their insights. During this consultation, the researchers reported fascinating facts about what children consider opportunities and risks for the realisation of their rights, and also the way they envision roles for the different factors involved. It was also observed throughout the research that children are very opinionated and can stand by their views with a clear and structured explanation about what their requirements are and how they want to participate.
The EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child and the European Child Guarantee (cf. section 1.3) touches upon the matter of children's right in the digital context. This section is based on the collaborative approach of the consultation and aims to address the nine basic requirements of meaningful, safe and ethical child participation through conducting an online survey and organising focus group discussions face to face and online. As a result of this consultation, it has been concluded that the vast majority of respondents strive for having a greater say in this matter and wish to participate more.
Key lessons learned from this initiative include: - It is important to explore ways of reaching out to more vulnerable groups, considering also their absence or limited access to the internet, for example.
- Reaching out to children and gathering the views of young people remains challenging and requires further development.
A report, written by the Council of Europe on children with disabilities in the digital environment, provides an overview of how children with disabilities experience their rights in an online environment, what are their barriers to using ICT, what risks they encounter, and what support they need. The methodology of this consultation offers capacity building and participatory exercises which helped children to understand the experiences beyond their own. Interestingly, children with disabilities expressed similar views of their digital lives to children with no disabilities. It was also noted that they perceive the digital environment as an enabler or 'equaliser', as it provides them with a variety of features that previously were not accessible to them.
A number of interesting insights from this approach can contribute significantly to the best-practice guidelines: - Giving children an opportunity to act as co-researchers in the consultation process is a great tool to enable meaningful participation.
- It is crucial to embrace diversity across and within different types of disabilities, and adjust activities, formats and support accordingly.
As has been illustrated, the last few years have been marked by extensive research and active work towards raising awareness about children's rights in the digital environment, as well as taking firm steps to promote and embrace meaningful children participation. However, a significant percentage of EU Member States still do not have systematic processes for child participation in place, and therefore need to develop it.
As stated above, further information on policy developments on child participation is available in the full best-practice guideline titled Children's rights in the digital environment: Moving from theory to practice, including more extensive descriptions of consultation activities.
More practically, as part of the European Commission's Digital Decade consultation activities as outlined above, we are currently directly consulting with children and young people – within the framework of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) project – to gain their views on how the digital world impacts their rights, what they themselves view as key opportunities and challenges, and the expectations they may have for policy makers. Read on in this edition of the BIK bulletin for more on these consultation activities.
Additionally, this topic will form the focus of this year's Safer Internet Forum, taking place online in October 2021. Again, see below for more information and to already secure your place.
Image credit: Jason Rosewell/Unsplash | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | | | REGISTER NOW FOR... | | | | SAFER INTERNET FORUM 2021 | | | | | | | | | | | Registration is now open for the Safer Internet Forum (SIF) 2021 which will take place online on 6-7 October. SIF is a key annual event where policy makers, researchers, law enforcement bodies, youth, parents and carers, teachers, NGOs, industry representatives, experts and other relevant actors come together to discuss the latest trends, risks and solutions related to child online safety and making the internet a better place.
Reflecting the theme of this BIK bulletin, this year's edition of the Forum will explore how to make Europe's Digital Decade fit for children and young people, and how we can ensure that their wants and needs for the internet of the future are taken into account. With a keynote session delivered by Dr Urs Gasser, the incoming Professor of Public Policy, Governance, and Innovative Technology at the Technical University of Munich, in which he will consider the pervasiveness of technology and what this means looking forward, participants will hear from a number of experts and young people who will provide their vision of the internet and the digital world in 2030.
The Forum will also showcase key findings from the European Commission's digital principles consultation, amplifying the voices of children and young people to deliver a vision for a #DigitalDecade4YOUth. The event will highlight the priorities that different groups, including parents, carers and teachers, have identified in order to fulfil children's rights in a digital world, while allowing them to engage, create and contribute within safe, ethical and inclusive online spaces.
As always, a number of deep dive sessions will allow participants to explore key topics ranging from the youngest users and the opportunities and challenges that they face online, to new and emerging technologies, to positive online experiences and active youth participation, age-appropriate design and age assurance/verification, and the challenges around child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) and child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Reserve your spot now and keep checking the Better Internet for Kids portal over the coming months for regular updates on speakers and sessions. | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | | | INSAFE HELPLINES | | | | Parents express concerns about mental health and screentime | | | | | | | | | | | The Insafe network of helplines collects data about the types of calls received and this is analysed every three months to look at trends, and new and emerging issues. The most recent helpline data covers the period from January to March 2021 and, once again, there has been an increase in the number of contacts made to the helplines. The current reporting period saw almost 17,400 contacts: an increase of almost nine per cent on the previous quarter.
Several helplines spoke about the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 and contacts wanting to speak about the impact that this continues to have on their daily lives and those of their family and friends.
Data collected over time shows a steady increase from the start of 2019 to the present day – an increase of almost forty per cent. The group which makes most use of helpline services is teenagers with 60 per cent of contacts from those in the 12-18 age group. Contacts from parents have spiked at various times since the onset of COVID but also show an increase overall, with 20 per cent of contacts from this stakeholder group in the latest reporting period. Calls from teachers and social workers reduced slightly during this quarter with helplines suggesting that as schools and other services start to reopen, these professionals are concentrating on their face-to-face activities with children and young people. The calls from parents have been increasingly about mental health concerns and screentime; this may well be reflected in the contacts from other professionals later in the year if and when these issues manifest themselves in schools and other settings.
Image credit: Pixabay/Pexels | | | | | | | | | |  | | | | | | INHOPE HOTLINES | | | | Digital First Responders: your first line of defence against online crimes | | | | | | | | | | | We were taught as children not to talk to strangers, and as young adults never to leave our drinks unguarded. We knew we had to stay alert and on guard when we were outside of our homes, but for most of us, home was a safe place. However, this hasn't been the case for many years now, and the threats associated with the online world travel with us as relentlessly as the devices in our pockets. This shift for our children, of experiencing their youth through the online environment, has been accelerated by COVID-19 and the availability of new apps.
Dealing with some of the worst outcomes of these risks on a daily basis, INHOPE are thrilled that the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted General Comment No. 25 on children's rights in relation to the digital environment earlier this year. The INHOPE network's role in upholding these rights is vital. To help understand the threats our children are facing, INHOPE has presented the trends which the network is seeing in its latest annual report.
Key findings include: - Age of victims: in 2019, 90 per cent of victims were aged between 3 and 13. In 2020, this age range featured in 76 per cent of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) reported to INHOPE hotlines. This is reflected in a rise in those between the age of 14 and 17, at 22 per cent in 2020, up from 8 per cent in 2019.
- Girls remain at much higher risk of sexual abuse than boys: 93 per cent of victims in 2020 were girls, up from 91 per cent in 2019. Both boys and girls are vulnerable to sexual abuse.
- The way CSAM is being shared is changing: websites replace image hosting sites as the main site type being used to store CSAM.
Meeting this with strength and resilience, the INHOPE network removed CSAM at a rate of roughly 50 per cent faster in 2020 than in 2019. This phenomenal achievement means fewer people are able to witness the evidence of children's abuse online and there is less opportunity for the material to be spread further. Joined by a new hotline in the Philippines, the INHOPE network is now present in roughly 60 per cent of the countries that CSAM is hosted in. The people behind these statistics are the hotline analysts. They are the Digital First Responders.
Image credit: McKaela Taylor/Unsplash | | | | | | | | | |  |  | | | | | HAVE YOUR SAY! | | | | | | |  | | | Public consultation on the Digital Decade | | | | | | | In the March 2021 edition of the BIK Bulletin, we brought you news of the European Commission's vision and targets for a successful digital transformation of Europe by 2030. With the aim of making the coming years Europe's Digital Decade, and based around four cardinal points of a digital compass (skills, infrastructures, business and government), the EC is developing a framework of digital rights and principles for European citizens. These include, among others, a secure and trusted online environment, protecting and empowering children and young people in the online space, and access to universal digital education and skills.
The European Commission has now launched a public consultation on the formulation of the necessary principles to promote and uphold EU values in the digital space. The consultation seeks to open a wide societal debate and gather views from citizens, non-governmental and civil society organisations, businesses, administrations and all interested parties. The resulting principles will guide the EU and Member States in designing digital rules and regulations that deliver the benefits of digitalisation for all citizens. Importantly however, this will feed into our ongoing work on creating and shaping a Better Internet for Kids.
The consultation questionnaire, available in all official EU languages, is open until Thursday, 2 September 2021. Be sure to have your say now!
| | | | | | | | |  | | | Consulting with young people to create a #DigitalDecade4YOUth | | | | | | | Alongside the main Digital Decade consultation exercise detailed above, the European Commission is keen for children and young people to have a say on the things that matter to them about being online. Through the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres, and other trusted partners, we're talking to children and young people, right across Europe, to gather views and feedback on how they use the internet. In focus group sessions, were working to discover: - The ways in which children and young people use technology and what they do online.
- What children and young people care about most when it comes to being online, but also which challenges or risks concern them.
- What, in their opinion, could make the digital world a better place in the future.
The ideas that children and young people share will be used to write a report to inform the European Commission, and other people and organisations responsible for shaping the internet in the future. We'll also be working with other stakeholders later in the year – parents, carers and teachers – to make sure that we understand what they need to support children and young people online. This important work will help to shape decisions and policies about being online in Europe for the next 10 years and will result in an updated Better Internet for Kids Strategy to drive work forward.
Look out for campaign activities in August and September, and get involved to share your views. Stay tuned to the Better Internet for Kids portal and our Facebook and Twitter profiles over the coming months for more! | | | | | |  |  | | | | | PUTTING YOUTH at the centre of
NETWORK ACTIONS | | | | | | |  | | | Positive awareness-raising approaches based on children's views of their digital lives | | | | | | | Internet Sans Crainte, the awareness-raising node of the French Safer Internet Centre, has recently adopted a strategy of producing co-constructed and adaptive resources on online safety. This approach is in direct response to an observed need to promote more in-depth consultation and dialogue within families, resulting in coherent and sustainable rules for technology use which children themselves have contributed to.
Indeed, in terms of awareness raising, the French team realised how efficient it can be to involve children and young people in the process of constructing rules and guidelines concerning their online behaviours. The main goal, therefore, is to produce resources for them and their families that open up a real dialogue, in order to give young people a voice and make them – and indeed their parents – aware of their rights and duties in the digital world, all within a context of creating trust by sharing experiences.
Image credit: Marta Wave/Pexels | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | Promoting digital skills through hackathons | | | | | | | Telefono Azzurro, part of the Italian Safer Internet Centre, has organised several 'hackathon marathons': an event in which people work in groups to quickly create digital projects. These initiatives saw the participation of more than 120 schools throughout Italy, involving more than 3,000 students aged 11-18. Despite the pandemic, and its inevitable restrictions which meant that many of the activities had to be carried out online, Telefono Azzurro nonetheless decided to put students at the core of its actions by promoting these national challenges.
Thanks to the dense network of collaboration with teachers, digital educators and principals, students were asked to question themselves on some relevant issues related to their digital wellbeing. They were given two different starting points as an icebreaker for their conversations: "Building an internet we can trust" and "Who I am, what I look like, and what they see in me on the internet".
Image credit: Julia M Cameron/Pexels | | | | | | | | | | |  | | | Testing new methods to gain input from young people | | | | | | | Working on a new national strategy to ensure that children and young people have an active and safe digital childhood, the Norwegian Safer internet Centre has collaborated with influencers on social media to test new methods and channels to gather input from children and young people.
For the Norwegian centre, using influencers as ambassadors is a new way of communicating with and to young people. This approach proved very successful, allowing for more input and feedback from Norwegian children and young people than would typically be achieved, and providing meaningful insight into young people's digital lives.
Image credit: Plann/Pexels | | | | | |  |  | | | | | PROMOTING GOOD PRACTICES | | | | | | |  | | | Best-practice guidelines for creating a Better Internet for Kids | | | | | | | One of the aims of the European Commission's Better Internet for Kids programme is to build capacity in Europe (and beyond) for creating safer and better online experiences for children and young people. One way of doing this is by sharing good practices developed through work within the context of the Insafe and INHOPE networks of Safer Internet Centres and other key stakeholders.
As mentioned in the focus article above, a best-practice guideline on Children's rights in the digital environment: Moving from theory to practice has recently been published. The guide aims to take stock of existing efforts in child participation and digital policymaking to extract and formulate best-practice guidelines for engaging children in the conceptualisation and operationalisation of their digital rights.
To set the scene, the guide first provides an overview of a selection of recent EU and international policy developments in this area. It then moves on to analyse a selection of existing models or benchmarks for child and/or adolescent participation. The aim is to identify a number of guiding principles for ensuring meaningful participation of children. Next, the guide scrutinises recent experiences with child engagement in interpreting and making decisions about their rights online. Here, the aim is to extract best practices for applying the guiding principles in practice. Finally, best-practice guidelines are formulated for moving from theory to practice when it comes to the realisation of children's rights in the digital world.
This guide joins a series of recently published best-practice guidelines tackling the following subjects: Image credit: Pexels/Alex Green | | | | | |  |  | | | | | COMBATTING ONLINE ISSUES | | | | | | |  | | | KidActions combats cyberbullying | | | | | | | Contacts made to Insafe helplines show that cyberbullying remains a key issue, while UNICEF research estimates that one in three young people have been victims of cyberbullying. The KidActions project aims to raise awareness of this issue among young people and encourage reporting of incidents through an interactive, gamified and holistic approach.
Targeting young people aged 11-19 in both formal and non-formal learning environments, KidActions seeks to address the topic of cyberbullying, including prevention and remediation, through the creation of a range of educational tools. This includes the KidActions Digital Education Platform, which will contain a social media monitoring and virtual coaching system, narrative-based learning and pedagogical games designed to empower young people to recognise, stand up to and report cyberbullying. The project also aims to support teachers, educators, and youth workers in fostering effectiveness and efficiency in education about the risks and impact of cyberbullying.
Funded by the Rights, Equality and Citizenship programme (2014-2020) of the European Union, the project launched in January 2021 and will conclude in December 2022.
Find out more on the project website, or subscribe to the KidActions Twitter and Instagram accounts.
| | | |  |  | | | | | DATE FOR YOUR DIARY | | | | | | |  | | | INHOPE Summit 2021 | | | | | | | The INHOPE Summit is an annual event that brings together technology, law enforcement and industry partners to ensure that INHOPE's network of 46 hotlines continue to remove child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as rapidly as possible.
The fourth INHOPE Summit will take place online on 21-22 September 2021. This virtual conference will be centred on Digital First Responders who provide a first line of defence against CSAM (see also the article above). Anyone who is part of the ecosystem of fighting CSAM is invited to register, to build connections, grow collaboration and unite efforts.
The Summit is also an opportunity for industry stakeholders to learn what INHOPE does, to partner with the INHOPE network of hotlines, and to raise awareness of the issue and the ability to report CSAM.
Discover more and secure your spot on the INHOPE website now. | | | | | | |
