Italian Safer Internet Centre
About the organisation
The Italian Safer Internet Centre (SIC) promotes a safer and better use of the internet among children, parents and teachers. It organises awareness and dissemination activities and a media campaign in cooperation with the main stakeholders working in the field. The project is coordinated by the Ministry of Education, University and Research in partnership with the main Italian organisations that work for a safer and better internet for kids. The main partners are the National Ombudsperson for Childhood and Adolescence, Ministry of Internal Affairs – Postal and Communication Police, University of Florence, University of Rome "La sapienza", Save the Children Italy, SOS Il Telefono Azzurro, EDI non-profit organisation, the Movimento Difesa del Cittadino, and Skuola.net.
Awareness centre
Description: The awareness and dissemination activities designed for children, parents, teachers and adults include:
- To organise online and offline training activities involving and supporting schools in a process of updating and/or developing and adopting internal policies or regulations to deal effectively with issues related to online safety and positive use of ICT by young people. In particular this activity is based on a school policy enforcement approach. The long-term objective of this initiative is that of ensuring the introduction of an eSafety Policy in each school. The policy should include prevention measures and effective handling of problematic situations that may arise within the school context, and the appropriate measures for facilitating and promoting the use of ICT in the school didactics.
- To arrange a digital platform to provide schools with educational resources: Generazioniconnesse.it linked to the EU core service platforms.
- To organise events and workshops targeting youth professionals at local level - in conjunction with the work in schools - and participate in their events.
- To produce resources and tools targeting students, parents and teachers that will be available online and offline.
- To implement a communication campaign promoted through three main channels: television, social networks and in schools, through an ad hoc creative competition.
- To organise events including national/local events for Safer Internet Day and participate in relevant events organised by third parties.
- To establish and maintain a youth panel where children and young people can express their views and exchange knowledge and experiences concerning their use of online technologies and contribute to the design of awareness-raising actions, tools and material.
- To promote the hotline and helpline to decision makers and relevant actors in key sectors (industry, law enforcement authorities, officials responsible for protection of minors, child welfare organisations) and to target groups.
Helpline
Description: The helpline 1.96.96, run by Telefono Azzurro, is a generic, confidential, free and secure space where children, adolescents, parents, professionals and other adults can obtain support and advice – online or by phone – about problems related to the use of digital and online technologies or internet safety.
Young people can contact the helpline if they need advice, if they are worried about their digital and online experiences and relationships, or if they feel isolated or alone. The service, active 24/7, can provide support in relation to a broad range of issues: requests for information relating to the service, information concerning privacy issues, problems related to exposure to harmful content, cyber-bullying, internet addiction, pro-suicide sites, pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia sites, online shopping, video games, online child sexual abuse images, grooming, sexting, gambling, and questions related to web reputation.
In addition to phone counselling, the helpline offers a one-to-one chat service. The live online chat facilities are open from 8am to 10pm (from 8am to 8pm at weekends).
Email address: info@azzurro.it Website: http://www.azzurro.it/it/cosa-facciamo/pronti-allascolto/pronto-telefono-azzurro https://www.facebook.com/TelefonoAzzurroOnlus/ https://twitter.com/telefonoazzurro https://www.youtube.com/user/sosTelefonoAzzurro https://www.linkedin.com/company/s.o.s.---telefono-azzurro Hotline
Description: The Italian SIC is composed of two hotlines: ‘Clicca e Segnala' (Click and Report) run by Telefono Azzurro (TA) - www.azzurro.it, and ‘Stop-it' run by Save the Children Italy - www.stop-it.it. Both are members of the INHOPE network.
Clicca e segnala and Stop-it hotlines receive and work on warnings of illegal, harmful and/or child pornographic content circulated through the internet. These can be reported using the dedicated section ‘Clicca e Segnala' and ‘Stop-it' on the SIC's website.
Youth participation
Description: Children and young people from diversified demographic groups will be involved in a youth platform. The panellists - 60 boys and girls - will be selected on a voluntary basis. The panellists will be involved in the SIC activities and will be encouraged to express their views, to contribute to the ‘Action' activities, and strengthen their knowledge and experience in using online technologies.
Some panellists will be trained and assisted in working as journalists so that they can actually produce their own publications on themes central to the action. Some will take on the task of acting as Safer Internet Ambassadors. Others will be consulted in response to queries from the Consortium itself and from the European network, and will contribute to the consolidating the European Youth platform.
Key successes
The SIC Italy is working on three main activities:
- Implementation of programmes to increase education on and awareness of safe use of the internet (for children adolescents, parents, teachers and educators).
- One helpline, a service for children, adolescents, and adults who can obtain support and advice about problems related to the use of digital and online technologies or internet safety.
- Two hotlines to allow internet users to report illegal content.
The main purpose of the activities is the strengthening of young people's and children's digital competencies. The SIC intends to achieve that through awareness-raising activities which are carried out using different channels and approaches:
- Activities involving children and young people (6 - 18 years old), teachers and parents (particularly within the school setting) and youth professionals.
- A nationwide communication campaign using different online and offline channels to provide the project's messages and resources with as much visibility as possible.
Key partners/supporters
The Advisory Board is composed of 23 members and the goal is to continue expanding membership during the course of the project. Its role is not only consultative, as the aim is to involve members in the planning and implementation of the most relevant project activities.
The new advisory board currently brings together representatives of key ICT industries and national authorities and includes the following members:
- Governmental bodies and authorities
- Representatives of associations and confederations of students and parents
- Independent authorities
- Companies providing core postal services
- Google and YouTube
- Facebook Italy
- Telecom Italia
- Many other relevant ICT and telecommunications companies.
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