More than 5 million users of mobile phones in Bulgaria will receive a short message on February 10 – the Safer Internet Day 2009. The messages to be sent by the three mobile operators – Mobiltel, GLOBUL and Vivatel, will announce SID2009 and include a link to the Bulgarian Safer Internet Awareness Node website www.safenet.bg for more information.
The initiative was announced at a round table discussion on 4 February in the Information Centre of the European Union in Sofia dedicated to the forthcoming Safer Internet Day.
The Bulgarian Safer Internet Node coordinator Mr. Georgi Apostolov from the non-governmental Applied Research and Communications Fund (ARC Fund) coordinating the node, said that the initiative became possible after the largest mobile operators Mobiltel and GLOBUL followed Vivatel to become members of the Public Council on Safer Internet Use – the advisory body to the SI Node in Bulgaria. They were also voted by the Public Council as members of the National Committee for SID 2009.
The round table was opened by the manager of the EU Infocentre in Sofia Mrs. Zinaida Zlatanova. She pointed that the Safer Internet Programme of the European Commission for the period 2009-2013 demonstrates that creating a safer Internet environment for the children is among the high priorities of the EU.
The deputy chairman of the State Agency for Child Protection Mr. Hristo Monov expressed gratitude to Bulgarian parents who as representatives of public institutions, private businesses and NGOs take initiatives to ensure the safety of their children when they are surfing, learning and playing in Internet.
The executive director of Microsoft Bulgaria Mr. Ognian Kiryakov announced the national SID 2009 event on February 10, co-organized for a second year in a row by the company and the National Safer Internet Node.
The deputy director of Marketing Data of Mobiltel Mr. Krassen Hinkov said that in the joint SMS initiative the mobile operators in Bulgaria are not competitors but partners.
The PR manager of GLOBUL Mrs. Petya Popova recalled that Bulgarian mobile operators have signed the European Code of Conduct and announced that GLOBUL is planning a large scale Safer Internet campaign.
Mrs. Bissera Zankova from the State Agency for Information Technologies and Communications announced that the second edition of the Council of Europe’s Internet Literacy Handbook has been adapted with the assistance of the SI Node to include information relevant to Bulgarian readers. The handbook is under print and all schools in Bulgaria will receive a free copy.
Mr. Nikolay Slavchev, chairman of the Bulgarian Federation for Electronic Sport – partner of ARC Fund in the Safer Internet Node, presented the new website of the campaign – www.safenet.bg. He pointed at the fact that the site is practically a portal with 4 websites – for children, for teenagers, for parents and for teachers.
Mrs. Hristina Dacheva from the children portal site Dechica.com – member of the Safer Internet Public Council – and the 18-years old student from a Sofia school Kaloyan Genkov presented a new safer Internet educational game for children “I am online”.
Mrs. Irena Dimitrova, director of Prevention, Integration, Sports and Tourism Directorate at Sofia Municipality congratulated the Safer Internet Node team and the campaign partners for the efforts and initiatives aiming at raising Safer Internet awareness in the country.
The participants were shown the video-clip “Little Betsy” of Bulgarian schools children which won third place in the European Schoolnet competition for students’ video-clips on personal data protection in Internet.
Children from the Children Council under the State Agency for Child Protection and from the Students Council of Oborishte District in Sofia commented on the initiatives presented at the round table. They said that larger and more attractive awareness campaigns are needed in order to involve as many parents and children as possible in the efforts to create a safer Internet environment for children.
