Over 60 children, adolescents and adults took part in the Conference “Dos and Don’ts.. For a Few Likes More”, which was held on the 9th February 2016 to mark the Internetional Safer Internet Day.
The goal of the Conference was to create a shared vision of the desired Internet space through the point of view of different stakeolders, coming from different ages and experiences. A special focus during the discussion was given to the need of young Internet users to seek for approval through social media, the ways in which the understanding of what is acceptable and unacceptable when seeking for approval online has changed over the course of the last 5 years, what determines how far are we willing to go today in the name of a few likes more and what do we want to change, in order to make the Internet a better place.
The participants of the Conference were the young Cyberscout teams of the Bulgarian Safer Internet Centre, adolescents from seven different schools in Sofia, students from the Faculty of Preschool and Primary School Education of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, teachers, psychologists, bloggers, representatives of the State Agency for Child Protection, UNICEF, the National Network for Children, Envision, Sofia University. The participants were divided into groups, all led by adolescent volunteers, who guided them and summarized the results from the different discussions.
The Conference begun with a discussion on the acceptable and unacceptable ways to look for attention over the last 5 years. The participants created a timeline, on which they presented what they were ready and what they were not ready to do for a few likes more in the period between 2010 and 2015.
What have I (not) done in the past for a few likes more?
The most notable thing the participants would not do in 2010 was posting nude or provocative photos. In 2011, the big “no” was the uploading of very personal information online, and in 2012, bragging about one’s own accomplishments online was considered inappropriate. In 2013, our participants said “no” to aggressive online behaviour and ignored the publications asking users to Like or Share something as a way of demonstrating their support for a given cause. In 2014, they were not ready to join the trend of publishing frequent love statuses, nor did they tolerate cyberbullying, violence and the sharing of false information for the sake of a few more likes. In 2015, the constant tagging from places users visited became unacceptable, so did the naked selfies and the pictures from bars, on which shishas or alcohol can be seen. Other things the participants would not do for a few more likes between 2010 and 2015 were the dissemination of pictures, depicting violence against children or racist actions, the sending of chain messages, the creation of fake profiles, and posting messages on someone’s wall instead of messaging them privately.
The things that our visitors would do to attract attention and popularity in 2010 were the sharing of funny pictures, the sharing of pictures taken at concerts or pictures with famous people, the use of Snapchat, Instagram and Vine, wathing and sharing vloggers’ videos, sharing funny memes and sharing more music. In 2015, the participants were ready to they made videos of places they visited, take selfies with a selfie stick and make videos with a Go Pro camera.
What am I (not) ready to do for a few likes more now?
During this session, the participants worked and created a list of tendencies, which define the ways in which people seek popularity online at the moment.
First, they noted that an ever-growing number of social networks and online communication platforms has become available to the users in the recent past and continue to appear today. At the same time, many of these websites and programmes collect more and more personal information from the users. Facebook, for example, only creates videos with memories for users, who have published enough personal pictures and statuses. Furthermore, during the last 5 years more and more users have acquired portable devices, connected to the Internet, such as smartphones and tablets. These tendencies lead to the transfer of numerous activities and information online, and thus many people prefer to communicate through the Internet, rather than in the real world. This leads to other tendencies – the Internet and social media are increasingly used for commercial purposes, as well as for the dissemination of information, which comes from an abundance of different sources, making it is difficult for the user to decide which ones are reliable and which ones are not. In the search of popularity, users associate themselves with different groups and their messages. This can lead to the popularization of ideas, which the user does not really support, like pseudo-patriotism and pseudo-racism.
What will I (not) do in the future for a few likes more?
In the third and final part of the event, the different groups discussed what their members were prepared to do for the improvement of the digital world in the following year.
The propositions were many. To start with, the majority of participants joined the campaign of the Safer Internet Centre, which aims to “dress the Internet”, by taking a selfie wearing many layers of clothing, and uploading it with the hashtag #облечисебе (put your clothes on!), in order to show that it is not only the naked pictures that gather popularity and Likes online. Also, one of the groups promised that whenever one of its members sees a provocative picture on the Internet, they will comment with #облечисебе (put your clothes on!) and will guide the owner of the picture to the website of the Safer Internet Centre for more information about the dangers of uploading such pictures online. Another group promised that all its members will share what they have learned during the Conference with three people, who will share the info with three more people and in that way they will raise the awareness of a number of users about the online threats and ways of preventing them.
Let us not forget the promises of the other groups – one group promised that they will only leave people they know in their friends’ lists in the social media and will only like pages, which interest them. There was also a promise that a Facebook page, which promotes the use of grammatically accurate writing online, will be created soon. Last but not least, a group reminded everyone how important it was that we all try to understand problems, be compassionate and try helping other users, rather than condemning them. There were a few other interesting proposals – one person shared his intention to properly cite the quotes he posts on Facebook, which will be his way of urging people to read more. The young Cyberscouts shared that they do not plan to stop their work, but plan on educating many more of their peers in the following year!
The results from the Conference will serve as the basis of future initiatives and trainings of the Bulgarian Safer Internet Centre, which will support young internet users in their search of their positive online identinty in a way, which does not put them in the ways of risks, such as sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, gender-based violence and other forms of child exploitation online.
More pictures from the event are available on the Facebook page of the Bulgarian Safer Internet Centre www.facebook.com/safenetBG.
