On February 6, ARC Fund as Secretariat to the Public Council for Safer Internet and operator of the Hotline against illegal and harmful content in Internet, co-organized a round-table on children’s safety in the Net in the framework of a 6-month Safer Internet campaign initiated by the Public Council and Microsoft-Bulgaria.
Children, parents, teachers and representatives of government bodies, NGOs and the media participated in the discussion at the National Press Club of the Bulgarian News Agency dedicated to the international Safer Internet Day and marking the climax of a the ‘Children Safe in the Net’ national campaign.
The Chairperson of the State Agency for Child Protection Mrs. Shirin Mestan made an opening address. Representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science, the State Agency for Information Technologies and Communications and Microsoft presented their best practices in the efforts to secure a safe environment for children in the World Wide Web. A presentation on the Internet security was made by Mr. Lorran Mason, Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa of Microsoft Corp.
The administrator of the national Hotline Mr. Georgi Apostolov made a presentation on the Safer Internet public awareness in the country, the activities of the Hotline and the Public Council for Safer Internet.
The participants watched part of the movie ‘I’m surfing safe’ and met the main actor, the 12-year old Iliya as well the famous singer Viktoria Kerin – official “Face” of the awareness campaign and also participant in the film. The movie was shown to the broad public on the Safer Internet Day and will be presented at schools around the country.
Mrs. Justine Toms, Director of the portal website for children Az-deteto.com presented the ‘Eighth Rule’ online-competition for children which had attracted already 1,700 participants proposing their one Safer Internet rule in addition to seven rules formulated at the game site.
The Executive Director of Microsoft-Bulgaria Mr. Ognian Kiryakov announced that the company donated an educational Safer Internet programme with interactive games to the innovative teachers network Teacher.bg for use at schools around the country.
