Focus on media literacy for Safer Internet Day 2019 in Iran

The international Safer Internet Day (SID) was celebrated in Iran for the second time, on Tuesday, 5 February 2019. The main event, organised by Anarestan (Amin SMD Co.), was attended by Mr. Khosrow Saljooghi, Executor of Support program of developing kids' cyberspace services as part of Iran's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Date 2019-03-14 Author Anarestan, the Iranian Safer Internet Day Committee Section awareness, sid

As the official representative of SID in Iran, Anarestan hosted the first international Safer Internet Day in Iran in 2018 in the Nima Youshij primary school, with students and teachers. This year, the ceremony was held for the teenagers of the Papeli Khalatbari high school, with the aim of informing them about media literacy and promoting the culture of good use of the internet.

The event was organised in three parts:

  • A speech delivered by Mr. Saljooghi, Executor of Support program of developing kids' cyberspace services in Iran, and Mr. Abolfazl Mahmoodi, CEO of Anarestan.
  • A speech contest among students, aiming to involve them in an engaging way.
  • A presentation of students' sketches about a safer online space, aiming to stimulate their creativity.

Picture of Safer Internet Day 2019 celebrations in Iran by Anarestan

Focus on media literacy

During the event, Mr. Khosrow Saljooghi, explained the media literacy dimensions and said: "In order to take advantage of massive amounts of online information and to protect children and young people from online threats and cybercrime, we need to have a good dietary information regime that regulates the media literacy". He added: "A safe internet is about positive and negative effects of the internet on users' lives. The function and effects of the internet depend on how it is used. Media literacy makes it possible to use the internet properly".

Creating a kid-friendly online ecosystem in Iran

Mr. Mahmoodi said: "The mission of Anarestan is to create a kid-friendly and content-rich internet ecosystem for children and teenagers, to educate them to the use of new technologies. Also, Anarestan holds special events and programs with other players in this field to empower students – such as this SID event". He said about the products of Anarestan: "We provide free pre-paid SIM cards for children and teenagers, localised and customised tablets for them named ‘Nartab' which are made in Iran and have dedicated training programs such as ‘Discovery of science' and access to the Anarestan ecosystem. Besides these products, Anarestan provides kid-friendly high-speed internet, based on 3G, 4G and ADSL, VDSL, FTTx with access to around 80,000 white list sites. It also presents the first kid- friendly internet search engine in Iran called ‘Romanet'."

For more information about Anarestan's activities as a Safer Internet Day Committee, visit the organisation's website and saferinternetday.org.

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