Portugal – Youth competition on online safety on social networks

DECO, the Portuguese Association for Consumer Protection, with the support of Google Portugal, is promoting NET Viva e Segura (2nd Edition), a national initiative that invites the educational community to produce videos to demonstrate the importance of engaging in social networks safely and while being aware of privacy challenges.

Date 2019-03-07 Author João Pedro Martins, BIK Youth Ambassador Section youth

"In its second edition, the initiative aims to promote greater security in the way young people interact on the internet, and to raise awareness of the importance of privacy protection on social networks, by challenging young people to produce their own videos in the following categories:

  • Share carefully – This category comprises awareness videos about online privacy, sharing information on social networks, the existence of false profiles, or the importance of protecting devices and their data. Young people may use the "Sharing and Privacy" tab on the website to further explore or enrich their work.
  • Secure connections – This relates to awareness videos on the safer use of the internet: how to protect accounts, routers or access points, how to choose the best password, how to change it in the event of theft and how to deal with fraud. All the help is as well available on the website, in the "Safe Connection and Fraud" tab.
  • Courtesy is not a fantasy – This category includes awareness videos about the importance of courtesy on the internet, and the impact of digital interactions on others, addressing topics such as cyberbullying. There is also advice on when and how to ask for help. Young people may use the "Courtesy and Help" tab.

"This contest is open to all young people between the ages of 16 and 22, attending regular or vocational education, from mainland Portugal and the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores, attending DECOJovem schools. Teams should be composed of three students of the same education level and a teacher, who will be responsible for the team's mentoring. The same team may submit more than one video, provided that in they are in different categories.

"There is still plenty of time to participate, as entries for this contest will run until Thursday, 21 March 2019, and submissions will be possible up until Saturday, 6 April 2019. During this period, several conferences will be held throughout different cities in Portugal to discuss these themes.

"I have been invited to participate along, and so far, the experience has been amazing!"

Learn all about this initiative at www.deco.proteste.pt/netvivaesegura.

Find out more information about the work of the Portuguese 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.

About the author:

Photo of João Pedro Martins, Youth Ambassador

João is a 20-year-old Computer Engineering student at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. He has been a Youth Ambassador for six years.

Born in Portugal, he was one of the first members from outside Lisbon to join the youth panel of his national Safer Internet Centre (SIC). After attending a Safer Internet Forum (SIF) in Luxembourg in 2011 representing his country, he was invited to be a Youth Ambassador. Since then he has attended in Paris and Cachan, as well as the European Parliament for the launch of the WebWeWant handbook. He has also participated in two more editions of SIF. Throughout the years, he has had the opportunity to raise awareness among his peers, learn about online safety issues and met many interesting people from all around the world.

Young people's opinions are very important for João and he believes that they should be taken into account by both politicians and industry. That is why he is involved in projects connected to youth participation in debates and decision-making processes. More recently, he has worked alongside his national SIC to organise lectures in local schools and regional events, and has been involved in internet governance events, both at national (Incode2030 and Portuguese IGF – 2016/17) and international (Global IGF – Mexico 2016) levels.

Related news