The 6th edition of the Safer Internet Day was marked in Bulgaria with a press-conference and focus groups discussion at the National Press-club of the Bulgarian News Agency covered by more than 60 media representatives. The event was in the framework of the 7-month “Children Safe in Internet” campaign officially started on 3 December 2008 and continuing till the end of April 2009. The campaign is co-organised by the Bulgarian Safer Internet Node, Microsoft Bulgaria, the children portal site Az-deteto.com and the big Internet provider Evrokom Kabel.
The coordinator of the Bulgarian awareness node Mr. Georgi Apostolov from the Applied Research and Communications Fundrevealed the “Keep control” TV spot by the European Commission and announced the start of the national campaign against the cyber-bullying. All national TV channels showed in their central news programmes reportages from the event and parts of the TV spot.
During the event children from 6 and 8 grades from 3 schools in Sofia formed a focus group and announced publicly the 5 most important rules for Safer Internet they have drawn up during the discussion: 1. Trust your parents
2. Avoid acquaintances in Internet
3. Don’t give personal information
4. Share everything that disturbs you in Internet with your parents and not with friends
5. Entering scandalous websites does not make you more interesting person before the others
A group of parents, including some representatives of the media too, also discussed the threats for children in Internet and articulated the following rules:
1. Talk to your children about Internet
2. Put the home computer in a room for the whole family
3. Admit your incompetence in the field of safer Internet use 4. Enlarge your Internet knowledge
5. Do not allow easy access to personal information on the computer
Moderators of the focus groups were the ambassadors of the awareness campaign – popular radio anchors Simo and Bogdana. On the basis of the 5 rules given by the groups they formulated one general advice for children and for parents: “Children, talk to your parents!” and “Parents, listen to your children!”.
The national campaign “Children Safe in Internet” is being organized for a second year jointly by the Safer Internet Node and Microsoft Bulgaria.
