On 6 February 2018, a national Safer Internet Day event took place in National Conference Centre LITEXPO, where all the largest exhibitions of the country take place. The event focused on 5th and 7th grade pupils their teachers and parents. All activities of the event was presented by Audrius Bružas, an actor of Lithuanian improvisational theatre, cinema and television. Audrius is well-known among children and youth. It is a person who is able to communicate with a young and older person.

The topic of SID2018 is “Create, connect and share respect: a better internet starts with you”. During the event we tried to say that we all are creating a better internet, in which not only content is important, but also respect for each other. We decided that it’s very important to say that a better internet starts with us! It’s one of the main reason why we chose the title of the event “Everything starts with us!”.

The event was started on a videos for teachers and pupils: “Tips for parents how to help kids online” and “Tips for curbing online bullying”. Later the lecture on topic “How to properly use social networks ?!” was read. The lecture was broadcast live and translated into sign language. We invited everyone to watch the broadcast – especially Lithuanian school communities. A lecture video can be found here.

Students participated in six different activities with a focus on the safer internet. All of them tried:

• to build robots together with a team of the Robotics Academy,
  to pose for Safer Internet magazine cover in photography studio,
• to check the pro
  gramming skills by playing the game “Scottie go”,
• to test knowledge in solving various tasks on the topic “Internet security”. The tasks were performed using interactive floors, walls and tables,
• to be a movie star when they were talked to journalists – Youth panel members,
• to send the photos taken at the event with hashtag #togetherforrespect.

We aim to show children the virtual words opportunities, to learn more about its possibilities and to show the importance of teamwork.

We always involve Youth Panel members in SID activities. During the main SID 2018 event, youth panellists took the role of the reporters, accompanied by the Youth Panel Coordinator. Youth panellists supported the event participants performing interactive activities, filmed video reports, and awarded the winners of the creative competition run by the Lithuanian SIC in December 2017. See the Youth Panel SID 2018 video reports later on the project webpage www.draugiskasinternetas.lt.

Another target group of this event was adults (teachers and parents). Adults had the opportunity to participate in practical activities only for them. Various specialists, such as children’s psychologists, representatives of the Ministry of National Defense, representatives from the Education Development Centre (EDC) and others, shared their experience on the topic “Online Safety”. The Safer Internet ambassadors also shared their experiences and moderated the whole adult part.

In parallel took place a round table discussion of policy makers, industry and SIC representatives together with Advisory Board, Steering Committee members, and Youth panellists. Participants discussed the protection of children on the Internet policy issues, shared their experience and knowledge of who and in which areas it is formed, what is the role of non-governmental, public organizations and business in the safer and better internet development, what are the possibilities to collaborate whilst supporting Youth panel, Awareness activities, and taking into consideration OECD experts recommendations:

• Strengthen initiatives to educate and empower children and parents to evaluate and minimise risks online.
• Encourage further opportunities for cooperation and dialogue between key governmental and non-governmental institutions.
• Improve the regular monitoring and measurement of the evolution of children digital literacy and further the growth of a robust empirical and analytical basis for evidence-based policy development and implementation.

The awards ceremony of the various competitions was the culmination of the event. To encourage the participants to take part in this event again and again, the coordinators of the event honoured every winner and gave them a chance to personally present their work. All event participants, who came to the event, got yellow hats with the emblem of the project.

More photos of the event can be found here.

Video material related to Safer Internet Day 2018 can be found here.

The word about SID 2018 and the Safer Internet Programme was spread during the entire week – Safer Internet Week (5-9 February 2018). Events include:

• Safer Internet Centre representatives participated in national TV and radio show during Safer Internet Week.
• Schools were invited to join the eSafety label community, to fill in the assessment form and get the eSafety label for their school.
• Schools were invited to join the events in libraries.
• The ‘Safer Internet Week in my school’ campaign encouraged educators to arrange various events in Lithuanian schools, as competitions for students, or creative or educational activities
• The activities of the programme “eTwinning” in Lithuanian schools.
• The activities of the projects Consortium members.
• “The workshop of the youth forum of Safer Internet 2018”.
• All the Lithuanian schools were invited to share their activities in the project website.

The support of Lithuanian National Radio and Television increased the visibility of Safer Internet Day 2018 due to its high ratings, with one example being a quiz on internet safety on the National Television morning show “Labas rytas, Lietuva”. For the entire Safer Internet Week (February 5 – 9), the host of the show held a quiz about internet safety each morning, and TV viewers called the studio and answered questions. The winners were awarded with termo cups with Safer Internet Centre logos.

Find out more about the Lithuanian Safer Internet Centre here.