Members of the Bulgarian SIC’s Youth panel represented Bulgaria at two important international forums which took place in Brussels. Simona Valeva participated actively at the European Safer Internet Forum which took place on 20 November and Mina Boneva participated in discussions of young people with Members of the European Parliament and other senior officials at an event the celebration of the international Children’s Rights Day co-organised by European Parliament, UNICEF and Eurochild, which took place on the same date.
Members of the Bulgarian SIC’s Youth panel represented Bulgaria at two important international forums which took place in Brussels. Simona Valeva participated actively at the European Safer Internet Forum which took place on 20 November and Mina Boneva participated in discussions of young people with Members of the European Parliament at the celebration of the international Child Rights Day which took place on the same date. Simona participated at the Safer Internet Forum, together with the Youth Participation Coordinator for the Bulgarian SIC Emanuil Georgiev, PhD. She was among the young people who moderated the Youth Deep Drive Session at the forum. She opened the session which was attended by Safer Internet Centres’s representatives, teachers and other professional who work with children in the field of online safety and digital literacy from different European countries. She also was among the young people who facilitated a group discussion on the topic of Fake news and the criteria for information assessment. The Youth panellists from all over Europe also worked on an awareness campaign on young people’s personal development on social media entitled #MyDigitalSelfandI, which they also presented during the deep-dive session. They created a video clip for the campaign which can be found here.
At the Safer Internet Forum, the winners in the completion within the SaferInternet4EU campaign, initiated by the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Digital Society Mariya Gabriel were also awarded. The forum included also various presentations on important topics (as control of screen time, online challenges, “second screen”, sexting etc.). The Bulgarian SIC’s expert Emanuil Georgiev also participated at a Consultation meeting of the European Commission with representatives of the members of the Better Internet for Kids Network, collaboration of IHNOPE (Association of the Hotlines dealing with illegal content online) and Insafe (network of European Awareness Centres promoting safer and better usage of internet) which took place on 21 November at European Schoolnet head office.
At the same time, as a result of the successful partnership of the Bulgarian SIC with UNICEF Bulgaria (member of the Bulgarian Public Council on safer internet use), Mina Boneva who is also an active member of the Bulgarian SIC’s Youth panel, together with the young representative Yoan Stoyanov, represented the Bulgarian youth at the celebration of the international Children’s Rights Day which also took place on 20 November in Brussels. The event was hosetd by President of European Parliament and co-organised by UNICEF and Eurochild. 40 children and young people from all over the Europe, including the Bulgarian youngsters, discussed with European politicians the findings from the “The Europe We Want” research conducted by UNICEF and Eurochild. Mina and the other youngsters had the opportunity to attend a session of the European Parliament and also participated actively in series of discussions with Antonio Tajani, Ramon Luis Valcarcel, MEP, Anna Maria Corazza Bildt, Co-Chair of the EP Intergroup on Children’s Rights and other Members of the European Parliament, as well as the President of Malta, HE Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca and other senior officials. Mina and Yoan shared their recommendations on the challenges, related to the rights of European youth.
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You can find out more information about the Bulgarian SIC’s Youth panel here.
