The International Safer Internet Day was celebrated for the 12th time on February 10. Different events and initiatives were held in numerous schools, cultural centres, libraries and other organizations, united under the slogan “Together for a better Internet.”
Two main events marking the Safer Internet Day took place in Sofia. The first was the official signing of the agreement for partnership on numerous joint initiatives between Telenor, the Ministry of Interior and the Bulgarian Safer Internet Centre. The cooperation aimed at the online safety of children will include an educational campaign, which will continue throughout 2015. Its aim is to increase the awareness regarding the online risks and the ways for overcoming them.
“I believe that providing safer Internet is a matter of shared responsibility. I’m proud to announce Telenor’s partnership with the Ministry of Interior and the Safer Internet Centre, during which we will work on a number of educational activities related to child safety online. Safe Internet is one of our key priorities in the corporate responsibility area on a Group level and we do various initiatives related to this topic in the countries where Telenor operates. I hope that our joint efforts will contribute to creating a safer online environment,” Telenor Bulgaria Chief Executive Officer Mr. Stein-Erik Vellan commented.
“Children begin to use the Internet from a very early age. At any given time they can be faced with inappropriate content or become victims of a fraud. That is why the prevention among young Internet users is among our main goals. It is commendable that a private company like Telenor also contributes to solving these problems not only in Bulgaria, but at an international level, and works for the benefit of the society,” Interior Minister Mr. Vesselin Vuchkov said.
The second event was the public discussion “Is there a national policy on protection of children from the online sexual exploitation in Bulgaria?” The discussion, which started at 14.30, was held in the Information Office of the European Commission and the European Parliament in Sofia. In a video address to the participants, a member of the European Parliament Mrs. Mariya Gabriel underlined: “Only a comprehensive combination of legal, technical and educational measures, including prevention, can deal with the dangers the children are encountering online.”
“The national policy on protection of children from the online sexual exploitation is a challenge for all of us – institutions, experts, media. It is a challenge, raising the questions about the national coordination and communication, about our priorities and the effectiveness of our measures and actions, about our responsibility towards the children, their rights and interests.” This is what the Chair of the State Agency for Protection of Children Mrs. Eva Zhecheva said in her address. She added that the Public Council for Safer Internet is a good instrument for coordination of our efforts, and that important steps have been made to guarantee an effective counteraction of illegal and/or harmful content in the Internet. Mrs. Zhecheva is a Deputy Chairperson of the Council. Mrs. Zhecheva also reminded the discussion participants about the National Plan for Prevention of Violence 2012-2014, which envisaged activities aimed at guaranteeing the safety of children, and brought forth other already established and functioning resources (the national system for receiving signals from children, the Hotline for fighting illegal and harmful for children content and conduct in Internet, the mechanisms and procedures for sharing information and taking actions between the Hotline team, institutions and partner Hotlines in other countries). All these are important steps, which place Bulgaria among the leading countries regarding the ability to effectively respond to the illegal and harmful for children content and conduct in Internet.
The Chair of the State Agency for Protection of Children announced that new measures are being discussed and will be put in practice. Among them are changes to the curriculum to include the training of specialists working in the education regarding their work with the children on prevention of aggression, and raising of awareness among parents and children regarding the dangers in the global network and the options they can turn to in the case of an emergency.
Mrs. Zhecheva also added that a working group will be formed within the National Council for Protection of Children to analyse the cases of children, who became victims in the Internet, to identify the most common forms of online violence, and to discuss and propose possible measure for counteraction. The members of this working group will be representatives of the State Agency for Protection of Children, Ministry of Education and Science, Hotline for Safer Internet and Direction “Cybercrime.”
Mrs. Zhecheva concluded that the children start to use the Internet at increasingly younger age, which obliges us to make sure that they would not feel uncomfortable doing it, and that for them Internet will be a safe, exciting, educational and friendly environment, and an ocean of knowledge. We can achieve this goal in partnership in which state institutions, non-governmental organisations, media and businesses are working together.
Other participants in the discussion were Mr. Filip Gounev, the Deputy Minister of Interior, Mr. Kalin Kamenov, the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Yavor Kolev, the head of the “Cybercrime” Unit of the State Agency for National Security, teachers and students. They supported the necessity of public-private partnership and coordinated activities of all institutions and organisations in order to achieve a better and more effective protection of children in the Internet.
The video address of MEP Maria Gabriel can be watched HERE.
