Child Focus and the private sector raise awareness for a secure and responsible use of internet among children

During the lockdown period, Child Focus noticed a considerable increase in online safety issues among children. In a year, non-consensual sexting and grooming cases have increased by 50 per cent and cases of sexual extortion of minors have doubled. Therefore, several companies have decided to include a commitment to a “better internet” in the goals of their corporate social responsibility.

Date 2021-06-07 Author Belgian Safer Internet Centre Section awareness Topic media literacy/education Audience children and young people

Belgian Safer Internet Centre Child Focus and the private sector are united and committed to organise once more the Internet Safe & Fun Day to raise awareness in more than 70 primary schools. For its 2021 edition, they tackled subjects such as the opportunities and traps that can occur in the digital media.

Employees in front of the class

For this day of action on 11  March 2021, Child Focus could count on the presence of Proximus, Microsoft and Sopra Steria, while BNP Paribas Fortis and Sopra Banking Software participated for the first time. These partners gave a day off to volunteers to work on prevention for a safer internet. Child Focus provided educational supplies and training to volunteers, so that they could present Internet Safe & Fun workshops to pupils in their fifth and sixth years of primary school.  

Workshops at home

The peculiarity of this edition was that this day occurred almost exclusively online. It was encouraging to notice that volunteers and schools were enthusiastic with this digital format. Many schools participated. This time again, the organisers raised awareness among 6,000 children aged 10-12 for a safer and more responsible use of the internet, which represents 12,000 children per year thanks to two editions of the Internet Safe & Fun campaign.

Graphic design representing the Internet Safe & Fun initiative

 

We are thrilled, this year again, to participate in the 2021 edition of Internet Safe & Fun. Our colleagues are enthusiastic and happy to discuss with children. It’s also an opportunity to see what happens on the field. Our colleagues are at least parents, grandparents, uncles, or aunts. It’s also the opportunity to demystify social media and for some employees, to bond with their own children.

Vincent Jaczynski, Proximus CSR Chief and Internet Safe & Fun Volunteer

A springboard for teachers

Child Focus also offers teachers educational material to allow them to keep talking about a safer internet with their pupils. After the workshop, teachers received an overview of available educational resources to go further into some aspects of online security: Clicksafe, Catalogue Clicksafe, and Quiz - Internet Safe & Fun

More information on the campaign is available on the Internet Safe & Fun website. Alternatively, find out more about the work and initiatives of the Belgian Safer Internet Centre, or find similar information for Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe. On the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) platform, additional useful tools for parents, carers and teachers can be found in the resource repository and in the Guide to apps section.

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