After heated debates, voting and re-voting – very much like the real parliamentary discussions, 100 young people voted and accepted the Charter of Online Rights of the Young People in Bulgaria on the Safer Internet Day.
The 3-hour long debates took place in the building of the Bulgarian parliament in the presence of several members of the parliament: Galina Bankovska, Katia Chalakova and Irena Sokolova, the chair of the State Agency for Child Protection, representatives of the Ministry of Education, Cyber Crime Unit, Vivacom, the head of CEE policy Gabriela Cseh and the assessment officer of Insafe Hans Martens.
Ten main delegates from across Bulgaria, selected through public voting on Facebook, presented and argued for the 10 rights included in the Charter. Students from six high schools in Sofia, representatives of the Youth council at the State Agency of Child Protection and SOS Children’s Villages directed questions, critiques and comments towards the delegates and the official guests of the event. The debates were streamed online, where 400 schools followed the discussion and asked questions through the Helpline chat platform.
The delegates of the TeeNET parliament insisted the Charter to be additionally reviewed by more young people and, if necessary, revised for the next Safer Internet Day in 2014. The young delegates asked the institutions and the business to consider actions to safeguard and promote the following 10 rights:
1. Opportunity: I have the right to benefit from the Internet as far as I respect the rights and dignity of the others.
2. Utility: I have the right to use everything I need as far as I respect copyrights.
3. Freedom of expression: I have the right to share freely my opinion as far as I don’t insult anyone.
4. Creativity: I have the right to create my own content as far as I don’t plagiarise.
5. Privacy: I have the right to limit the access to my personal information in order to protect my identity.
6. Communication: I have the right to communicate openly as far as I don’t use hate speech.
7. Credibility: I have the right to verify the information I come across in order to ensure that it is correct.
8. Help: I have the right to receive competent help in case I need it.
9. Participation: I have the right to participate in the decision making as far as it concerns me and my wellbeing.
10. Freedom: I have the right to do online whatever I like as far as I respect the rights of the other users.
TeeNET parliament’13 was organized by the Bulgarian Safer Internet Centre with the support of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Science, Children, Youths and Sports, with the media partnership of the Bulgarian National Television and Kabinata.com and the fincancial support of the mobile operator Vivacom.
