Competition in primary schools on the critical use of the internet

Slovenian awareness centre SAFE.SI organised its 2018-19 award competition for primary school pupils, who participated with 140 various projects of fine arts, comics and videos, which have delighted the jury. On Thursday, 30 May 2019, the winners were invited to the final event in Ljubljana, where they watched a documentary and received their awards.

Date 2019-08-14 Author Slovenian Safer Internet Centre Section awareness

The theme of the competition, targeting pupils aged 9-15, was "Critical use of the internet – do not believe everything you find online". This topic was chosen to promote critical thinking about web content and to empower pupils to defend themselves against web scams, lies and disinformation.

The competition comprised three categories:

  • Sejfko Fine Arts Competition (for pupils aged 6-9) – "Sejfko helps me use the internet and mobile phone safely"
  • Safe.si Comics Competition (for pupils aged 9-12) – "Critical use of the internet – do not believe everything you find online"
  • Safe.si Video Competition (for pupils aged 12-15) – "Critical use of the internet – do not believe everything you find online"

In the first category, SAFE.SI received 46 art projects from 14 schools, created by 151 pupils under the guidance of 20 mentors. In the second category, SAFE.SI received 65 comics from 27 schools, created by 144 pupils led by 32 mentors. In the third category, SAFE.SI received 29 videos from 20 schools, made by 142 students and 24 mentors.

The expert jury's evaluation was based on a number of criteria (the creativity, the innovation of the topic and its usefulness) and selected the three best projects in each category. The awarded authors and their mentors were invited to the closing event on Thursday, 30 May 2019, where the final winners of the competition in all three categories were announced.

The winners first visited Cinema Kinodvor to watch a Slovene documentary film called "Birds of the lakes return", which was awarded at many international film festivals. After the film, the award ceremony took place, during which all winners received medals. After the ceremony, the SAFE.SI team took the winners to Čolnarna Park Tivoli for a snack.

The winners

Sejfko Fine Arts Competition – Third grade pupils from the Col primary school won with their boardgame called "A safe way on mobile phone". Four players must reach the Google search bar by rolling a dice and using cards. Each card describes a different behaviour pattern: the positive patterns move you forward and the negative ones move you backwards on the board. Through different cards, players learn about the online safety rules and netiquette.

Safe.si Comics Competition – Sixth grade pupils from the Rodica Domžale primary school won the competition with their comic "Pepe and the virtual hamster". The story shows the risks of online shopping. Pepe is a boy who wants to have a hamster. He goes online and buys a very cheap hamster. After 24 days, a parcel arrives containing only a toy hamster. Pepe is very disappointed as he thought he was supposed to receive a real-life hamster.

Safe.si Video Competition – Eight and ninth grade pupils from the Loka Črnomelj primary school won in this category with a short movie called "A dream weekend break". Four friends want to go on a short weekend break. One of them finds a very cheap online offer for an exclusive resort. They pay for the holidays in advance. When they arrive at the location, they find an abandoned industrial complex instead of a luxurious hotel. When they try to call the number on the website, they get an autoreply "The number does not exist."

All winning project can be viewed on the website of the Slovenian awareness centre.

Find out more information about the work of the Slovenian Safer Internet Centre (SIC) generally, including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services, or find similar information for Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe.

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