On 27 and 28 August, an international conference “Say NO! to cyberbullying” gathered in Sofia school principals and teachers from 9 cities and towns and representatives and experts from Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Bulgaria. The forum was co-organised by Madara-Bulgaria Foundation, the Department for information and qualification of teachers at Sofia University and the Bulgarian Safer Internet Centre (SIC) at the Applied Research and Communications Fund.
Dr. Stefania Dimitrova, Chair of Madara-Bulgaria Foundation, presented several international studies including the EU Kids Online pan-European study from 2010, on cyber-bullying and compared the results demonstrating that e-violence in the children and youth perception is the most harmful risk they face online.
Zdenek Zalis, Agnieszka Nawarenko and Viera Gazikova of the Czech, Polish and Slovak SICs presented their experience and methods for prevention and coping with cyber-bullying among minors.
The Bulgarian SIC coordinator Georgi Apostolov presented the results of an online survey among pupils, teachers and parents demonstrating that the majority of the three groups (65-85%) perceive the hostile and aggressive online behavior by minors as a form of fun – an already socially acceptable “Hate for Fun” online culture among them. The hostile and aggressive acts online and via mobiles are in most cases part of the typical for teen age exploration of borders and social norms and experimentation with different identities. He also acquainted the participants with a presentation of the founder of SafeKids.com Larry Magid “Do fear and exaggeration increase risk?” showing that scary messages and campaigns are not the right answer to risky behavior.
Marieta Radulova from Association Parents, partner in the Bulgarian SIC, presented the educational course “Real and Virtual Violence: Prevention by Interactive Education in Schools” which has been implemented by SIC in schools in Sofia, Varna and Dimitrovgrad and aims to prevent malicious cyber-bullying by raising awareness and educating emotional intelligence among students from 11 to 18 years of age.
Teachers from 3 cities presented their best practice in addressing cyber-bullying and bullying at school.
At the end of the forum, the Bulgarian participants prepared a proposal to the Ministry of Education requesting that online safety be included in the school curricula from 1 to 11 grade.
