Belgium places a spotlight on cyberbullying for SID 2018

Safer Internet Day (SID) was celebrated on Tuesday, 6 February 2018 right across the globe. Read on to find out more about how the Belgian Safer Internet Centre (SIC) celebrated the day with some royal support.

Date 2018-03-23 Author Belgian Safer Internet Centre Section awareness, sid
This year in Belgium, cyberbullying was in the spotlight on Safer Internet Day. Many activities on this issue took place on SID and will continue throughout the year. Some examples follow.
 
First, the Belgian Safer Internet Centre developed a ready-to-use activity on cyberbullying especially for Safer Internet Day. Targeted at teachers and classes of the first degree of secondary schools, the activity begins with a video showcasing a simple case of what seems to be an innocent joke. After watching this video, students complete three activities which question them on issues like: Who would they share this video with? What media would they use? It also covers topics such as privacy settings on their profiles and how to deal with hate speech. Once they have completed the three small activities, a second video is shown which depicts a situation of cyberbullying through the repetition of this "joke" towards the same victim. Students are then requested to rethink the answers they previously gave now that they have a broader context of what is happening. For each issue, we propose specific pedagogical resources to allow teachers to deepen the subject and understanding.
 
Secondly, Her Majesty the Queen of the Belgians wanted to address cyberbullying on the occasion of Safer Internet Day. As she is the Honorary President of our organisation, she requested our expertise to meet with eight children and youngsters who had been victims of cyberbullying in order to present a video on this issue on the day of SID, 6 February 2018. This clearly is a recognition of the good work and expertise of the Belgian Safer Internet Centre, while the video gained a huge reach and significant media coverage on this subject in Belgium which will extend way beyond SID. Read more on Queen Mathilde's blog, or watch the French version of her video address below:
 

Finally, industry is also involved in our campaigns. Each year, volunteers from Microsoft and Proximus, acting as ambassadors of our Safer Internet Centre, reach more or less 15,000 primary school pupils with a workshop that addresses cyberbullying and other online safety issues. This workshop, called "Internet Safe & Fun" aims to teach the pupils how to behave in order to keep the internet both safe and fun!
 
See the Belgian Safer Internet Day profile page for further information.
 
Find out more about the work of the Belgian Safer Internet Centre (SIC), including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services.

Related news