Policy frameworks
Greece has addressed in part the European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children (BIK) in national public policies. BIK-related issues have been addressed in a number of separate policies which directly address BIK-related issues. National public policy on children's online safety was defined in 2008 by the Ministry of Education together with the Greek School Network. While national public support is limited, the Greek Ombudsman for children and the Greek Police Bureau of Cyber Crime also focus on issues related to safer internet for children. The Greek Ombudsman acts as independent guardian of children's rights, undertaking awareness activities as well as being involved in mechanisms for reporting content. In addition, the Greek School Network provides the educational community with e-learning services, communication and collaboration, e-government services as well as a helpdesk and user support services. The Greek Safer Internet Centre (SIC), SaferInternet4Kids, started operating from July 2016 under the auspices of FORTH. The Greek SIC is the official representative of Insafe/INHOPE organisations in Greece. Article 312 of the Greek penal code which criminalises bullying, was introduced in the Greek penal code in Greece in 2015.
Policy design
Policy design is distributed across four to six ministries. Policy design is led at ministerial level in relation to educational policies, tools and regulation for a safer environment and in terms of legislation and law enforcement against child sexual abuse and exploitation. While there is no formal coordinating body, the Greek Safer Internet for Children, partly funded by the national government, brings together different stakeholders and coordinating activities. Its Advisory Board, comprising representatives from government, industry, child welfare, law enforcement, research and technology, provides input into action planning for the SIC and future awareness campaigns. National data collection is undertaken by the Adolescent Health Unit (AHU) of the University of Athens and the awareness centre of the SIC for the "Observatory for Digital Greece" initiative.
Policy actors
Government ministries take the lead in carrying out activities in relation to BIK with the exception of Pillar 1 dealing with quality online content for children and Pillar 3 for awareness raising where the SIC is the lead actor, carrying out the majority of activities. Youth consultation on BIK-related issues is facilitated by the SIC's youth panel which consists of 20 adolescents aged 12-18 who come from both rural and urban regions all over Greece. The youth panel provides input regarding alarming trends to the awareness centre and plays a very important role in the design of awareness-raising campaigns. They receive training regarding safer internet issues in order to become active in peer2peer education.
Breadth of activities
Breadth of activities outlines progress made in Member States delivering initiatives at the national level. Using the full range of recommendations contained in the BIK strategy, the following tables highlight which actions are supported and whether they have increased, stayed the same or decreased in prominence in the last three years for each of the BIK pillars.