Czech Safer Internet Centre
LocationAbout the organisation
The CZ.NIC Association, the administrator of the Czech national domain, has taken over the coordination of national activities aimed at improving online child safety and prevention in the Czech Republic since 2019 and follows up on the Saferinternet.cz project (which ended in December 2018) with a new project "Safely on the Net". From the beginning, the Safety Line has also been involved in the new project, which, thanks to this partnership, has increased its capacity to focus on cases related primarily to cyberbullying, sexting or lure to dangerous meetings.
As a national centre, we want to contribute mainly to ensuring that individual projects within the Czech Republic do not emerge as competitive, but we want to connect these individual activities, so we have a dialogue with many partners or state representatives. In addition to educational courses for school children, who are the most important target group, seminars are held for the professional public, teachers, parents or the state administration.
One of the successful services is the STOPonline.cz line, which is intended for reporting illegal content, especially child abuse, inappropriate childhood nudity and cybergrooming.
Profile last updated: June 2020
Awareness centre
Description:
First of all, it is important to point out that both prevention and awareness about internet dangers are at a very high level in the country, thanks to the involvement of not only many non-governmental organisations, providers, businesses and media, but also universities and schools. Every year, many educational materials are produced, including films, documents and workshops, and expert conferences are organised. As a Safer Internet Centre (SIC) we would like to contribute towards the individual projects not to be launched as competitive, but we aim to connect them. On the other hand, we were able to convince the Vice-President of the European Parliament, Dita Charanzova of the importance of our cause, who subsequently became the ambassador of the Safer Internet programme for the Czech Republic, and the Minister of Education, with whom we are discussing the improvement of on-line security and media literacy topics in schools.
Firstly, we would like to mention successful series #Martyisdead, which is inspired by true cyberbullying cases. Our series was awarded the prize for the best web series in Central and Eastern Europe at the Serial Killer festival and currently has been watched by hundreds of thousand viewers. Secondly, our other activities include shooting of a short film Maturant (The Graduate), which deals with topics like addiction, truth and lies on the Internet. Thirdly, for the youngest users, we provide a resource inspired by the Austrian SIC, the ON-LINE ZOO book, for which we developed a colouring book, worksheets and an audiobook.
Up to now, we have toured 207 placed and held 368 discussions with the series and also other courses and workshops. We communicate mainly via Facebook (for parents) and Instagram (for children). As for online platforms, we use mostly the national ones - MALL.TV (Internet television) and Seznam.cz (the largest ISP (internet service provider) with more than eight million real users). We also have a YouTube channel on which we upload various spots (for example, short summer spots on an online challenge). We have launched new web pages of the project (www.bezpecnenanetu.cz) and also educational pages (www.martyisdead.cz).
Email address: bezpecnenanetu@nic.cz
Website: https://www.bezpecnenanetu.cz
Social media:
https://www.facebook.com/bezpecnenanetu/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqREyP-JbWqkEyUK2pxFxbQ
Helpline
Description:
Linka bezpečí is the oldest and the best-known children helpline in the Czech Republic. It was established on September 1994, providing continuous telephone, email and chat aid to children and youth. Given the scope of services and their availability, it is the only service of its kind in the country. Linka bezpečí is a member of the Child Helpline International network, the Association of Social Service Providers and the Czech Association of Helpline Workers. Its daily operation is provided by over 100 highly-trained professionals.
An intergral part of Linka bezpečí is a Parent Line providing direct crisis intervention and counselling to parents, teachers, carers and the others involved. At the same time, Linka bezpečí actively contributes to the safety awareness raising through its own campaigns.
Linka bezpečí is also involved in lecturing and educational activities. It does so in two ways: through accredited courses for professionals involved in social services and via lecturing at schools. School activities are run to prepare kids to deal with risky life situations and to raise awareness of the services they can use. Within the project, Linka bezpečí takes care of the SIC's helpline and actively contributes to most activities. Among others, it contributes to a series of conferences and educational activities covering online safety.
Website: http://www.linkabezpeci.cz
Hotline
Description:
Based on a memorandum with the National Central for Organized Crime and the Police of the Czech Republic, we operate the STOPonline.cz line for reporting inappropriate content, especially child pornography, which receives over 3,000 reports a year.
Website: http://www.stoponline.cz
Youth participation
Description:
We plan to continue our youth participation work on the basis of an extended Youth Panel (Cyber Security Teen Team). The Youth Panel will continue to provide a space for kids and young people to express their views, and share and exchange knowledge and experiences concerning modern technologies. New topics reflecting emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Virtual and Augmented Reality and the Internet of Things will be put on agenda. Particular emphasis will be placed on a direct engagement of children and people from different demographic groups.
Key successes
In cooperation with the internet television MALL.TV, the successful series #Martyisdead was filmed, which is inspired by real cases of cyberbullying. The series won the award for the best web series in Central and Eastern Europe at the Killer Series festival and currently has hundreds of thousands of views. A short film by director Braňo Holička Maturant was also made, which deals with the topics of addiction, truth and lies on the internet. At the same time, a methodology for working with this film in schools was created.
It is also worth mentioning the summer campaign dedicated to dangerous online challenges. For the youngest children, we are developing the Austrian project ON-LINE ZOO, for which we have created colouring books and an audiobook.
The project, together with cyberbullying, also focuses on the safe use of mobile devices and applications. For this reason, three new games have been created for the application Tablexia, which are focused on training attention, spatial orientation and memory. Just these cognitive functions are most often affected by excessive use of mobile devices and applications.
Key partners/supporters
The main partners of the Czech Safer Internet Centre (SIC) include the Safety Line, which provides crisis intervention and counselling for clients from all over the Czech Republic via telephone, chat and email. Other partners include the Police of the Czech Republic, the National Office for Cyber and Information Security, the organisation Seznam.cz, a.s., and the internet television MALL.TV.