Report from the First National Conference on #SafeNetForEveryChild
Children in the Digital World: Together for Safer Internet
- Български
- English
About
The alarming data on online violence and the dramatic increase in the reports of online child sexual exploitation and abuse received by the Safer Internet Centre in 2023 were among the reasons for organizing the first National Conference on Online Safety and Digital Skills for Children at the Millennium Grand Hotel in Sofia on 9 November 2023. The conference was organized by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in partnership with the Ministry of Interior, the State Agency for Child Protection (SACP), the National Network for Children, and the Parents Association, which manages the Safer Internet Centre, to foster dialogue, share knowledge and experience, and improve national efforts to make the Internet safer for children and young people in Bulgaria.
The event was held under the patronage of Mr. Rosen Zhelyazkov, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria, and brought together over 100 participants from central and local government authorities, the civil society sector, business representatives, media, professionals working with children and parents, as well as children and young people from the SACP Children’s Council, the National Network for Children’s Megaphone Youth Platform, and the Youth Panel at the Safer Internet Centre together with students from the Seven Saints Secondary School No 7.
The presentations at the conference covered the current situation and the challenges facing the country, as well as the existing global and EU policies to improve the online safety for children and the international standards and the national response model for preventing and tackling child sexual exploitation and abuse of WeProtect Global Alliance, of which Bulgaria is a member. The model also offers a self-assessment tool for national policies and a guide on how to improve the coordination among various stakeholders and sectors. A few examples of successful policies, initiatives, or projects were presented with a view to making the internet safer and to enhance children’s digital and media skills.
The children and young people from the SACP Children’s Council, the National Network for Children’s Megaphone Youth Platform, and the Youth Panel at the Safer Internet Centre, together with students from the Seven Saints Secondary School No 7, joined the discussions and underlined that abuse, aggression, including cyberbullying, grooming, and sextortion were important and topical issues for them. They pointed out that there should be more information about those topics, and they need to be widely discussed in society, including the need for information on how help could be sought by a child victim of violence or sexual exploitation and abuse online.
