Policy frameworks

Slovakia has incorporated the European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children (BIK) in national public policies with BIK-related issues being addressed as part of broader policies. A key policy framework in the area of BIK strategy is the Concept of Media Education in the Slovak Republic in the context of lifelong learning, an initiative of the Ministry of Culture, and approved by the Government of the Slovak Republic in 2009. An expert group comprising representatives of the academic sector, the ministries of culture and education, non-governmental organisations, public service media, and regulatory bodies contributed to the policy. A National Center for Violence against Children was established in 2014 as an organisational component of the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and the Family of the Slovak Republic. As part of the National strategy to protect children from violence, the center coordinates activities and co-operation with individual ministries, municipalities, non-governmental organisations, experts and other stakeholders.

Policy design

Policy design is distributed across four to six ministries with more than one coordinating ministry, agency or body responsible for managing and coordinating policy. Policy is coordinated by ministries such as the Ministry of Education in areas of positive online content and online safety in schools (Pillars 1 and 2); the Ministry of the Interior in the area of stepping up awareness and empowerment (Pillar 3). The Office for Personal Data Protection of the Slovak Republic is primarily responsible for the development of policy in the area of tools and regulation for a safer online environment (Pillar 4) while the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family oversees the area of legislation and law enforcement against child sexual abuse and exploitation (Pillar 5). Inter-agency or departmental cooperation is managed on an informal level. Data collection to support BIK-related policy has been gathered from a variety of sources including the Youth and Media Research Project, the ON-LINE GENERATION - Information, Communication and Digital Youth Participation Project in the Information Society. The IMEC – Media Education Centre (part of the Faculty of Mass Media Communication, University of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava) has also carried out a number of national studies related to the integration of media education in school curricula.

Policy actors

Activities to deliver on relevant aspects of the BIK strategy are jointly shared by government ministries, the Safer Internet Centre (SIC), NGOs and a variety of industry groups. The Slovak Safer Internet Centre consists of three components: awareness centre (Zodpovedne.sk; responsibly in Slovak language), a helpline (Pomoc.sk; help in Slovak language) and a hotline (Stopline.sk). eSlovensko, the leading NGO in the Slovak SIC, has been implementing educational activities on the topic of child protection on the internet since 2007, including the prevention and intervention of cyberbullying, sexual abuse, intolerance, addiction, and so on. Children and youth participate in BIK-related consultations through a structured dialogue process, coordinated by Iuventa - the Slovak Youth Institute and the Youth Council of Slovakia. Five cycles of the Structured Dialogue process have been conducted as of 2017.

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.