Over 620 teachers in the country attended the National Safer Internet Center’s Autumn’s Trainings for Kids’ Web Skills

“IN | Dependent Internet Users – how to develop children’s skills to be safe online”. This was the topic of workshops in which more than 620 principals, vice-principals and school psychologists participated in September. The free trainings and webinars of the National Center for Safe Internet (safenet.bg) targeted educational experts from all over the country, including from small towns.

Antoaneta Vasileva – coordinator of the National Center for Safe Internet and Ralitsa Mihailova – psychologist and trainer presented ready-made topics for holding a lesson on safe Internet in class. The materials include a clear methodology for conducting them, interactive games for children to practice what they have learned, but they are also created in a way that allows adaptation by the teacher himself.

Ready-made lessons can be downloaded from the iZZI educational platform of “Klet Bulgaria” publishing house. The modules are by age group – for students from 5th to 7th grade and are tailored to the habits and interests of children of the respective age, as well as to the specific most common online dangers. The videos for 7-12, 12-18, as well as those for parents can be downloaded from here.

The Safe Internet Center invites all educational experts, regardless of whether they have participated in the current or previous safenet.bg trainings, to download the resources and conduct a lesson with children about the dangers of the Internet and what techniques students can apply for risk-free communication in gaming platforms and social networks. For the classes that hold a lesson, subject prizes are provided by the partners in the trainings – “Klet Bulgaria” publishing house and Yettel.

Here are the highlights of the interactive lessons by age group

What we share on the Internet – for students in 5th grade

Kids will learn some simple terms like “public profile,” “two-factor authentication,” and more, as well as why it’s important to take more time when creating a social network profile. They should pay attention to a few additional settings to protect them from unwanted interference from strangers on the network. The lesson includes an exercise in creating a strong password, how they can report malicious content and behavior of another user, and also a fun game where they evaluate the settings of a hypothetical profile.

Bullying at school (2 modules) – for students in the 6th grade

The discussion and exercise for sixth graders focuses on what bullying is. Children will learn the difference between a one-time disagreement and repeated malicious behavior with a clear power imbalance, whether things happen in a live setting or online. In the form of team games and discussion of different case studies, children will practice recognizing bullying and what they can do. They will understand that all participants are important – the abuser, the victim, as well as those who witness bullying. Teachers have freedom in casework to adapt the stories to fit the children’s specific situations and environments.

The strangers in the network – for students in the 7th grade

This lesson is adapted to the youth in seventh grade. It is a difficult age and a stressful year because of the application. Children have many profiles, including several on the same network but visible to different people. They tend to call “friends” people with whom they communicate only online, but do not know in person. Their online communication happens simultaneously on Twitch, TikTok, Discord, Instagram, Snapchat. The lesson for the seventh graders is about the myths of different networks, such as whether it is safe to upload certain photos to Snapchat even if they only stay there temporarily, is Discort only for gamers or are there adults who encourage children to contact other social networks and much more. In the form of games and working in groups, children will be able to talk about real and hypothetical cases, discuss them and draw conclusions about which behavior is safe and which communication represents a risk.

We remind all parents, teachers, children and young people that the Hotline and the Advisory Line 124 123 on safenet.bg are available for alerts and advice in case of an online problem.

Reporting harmful content or a malicious profile is always important, but be aware that user reports fall into a long queue of pending ones to network moderators. The Center for Safer Internet is an authorized partner of the platforms and signals from safenet.bg received on both lines have a “fast track” for their examination.

The lessons from the trainings described above are available on the iZZI platform, where other safe internet lessons from the previous joint trainings of the publishing house “Klet Bulgaria”, the National Center for a Safe Internet and Yettel are also available. The address from which they can be downloaded is: https://bg.izzi.digital/#/

All teachers who, until November 15, conduct the lessons with their classes will have the opportunity to receive prizes for their students, provided by Yettel. The mobile operator is a partner in the initiative as part of its long-term program “Safe Internet and development of digital skills”, which aims to increase the awareness of adolescents about online dangers and ways to deal with them.

The consortium of organizations implementing the activities of the Digital Children project consists of the Parents Association, which is one of the founders of the Center in 2005, is the main coordinator, the Bulgarian Association for Family Planning and Sexual Health (BASP) and the National Network for children (NMD).

Funded by the European Union, co-funded & in cooperation with the British Council. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA) or the British Council. Neither the European Union, HaDEA nor the British Council can be held responsible for them.