On 10 July the Bulgarian Safer Internet Centre (SIC), co-ordinated by ARC Fund, organised a round table with experts from the Ministry of Education, Sofia Regional Education Inspectorate, Sofia Municipality, State Agency for Child Protection, school directors, teachers, pedagogues and school psychologists.
Association Parents and ARC Fund – partners in SIC – presented the results of a year-long interactive education course in 12 Sofia schools ‘Real and Virtual Violence’ co-financed by the Swiss Oak Foundation and the Safer Internet plus Programme of the EC. In the framework of the project 50 trained educators delivered more than 600 classes to children from 5 to 12 grades.
At the start and the end of the school year surveys among the children were conducted showing that some 60 % of the children have witnessed in the last 4 months acts of violence in Internet, and 26 % – in mobile communications.
Around 36 % of the students admit to having participated in the same period in act of violence – 18 % as perpetrators and 19 % as victims.
The surveys showed a significant rise of online dangers awareness. In the first survey 9,2 % of the pupils pointed at computer viruses as one of the greatest risks online but in the second survey the percentage dropped to 2,3. In the same time, the answer “Bad people online” was chosen by only 0,4 % of the children during the first survey and by 15,8 % – in the second one. Only 2,7 % of the students pointed at the video-clips with violence as an online danger during the first survey and 12,5 – during the second one.
The participants at the round table gave positive evaluation to the education programme of the Safer Internet Centre and proposed various ways for enlarging its scope. Association Parents and ARC Fund informed the experts that the educational course project is going to continue for 3 more years.
