EU Insafe Program

Case Study EU Insafe Program

Social Inclusion, eSafety and Digital Divides A European project to support safe surfing for children.

Introduction “Young people struggle to maintain their privacy online”, according to a 2007 survey of 21,872 people across Europe organized by European Schoolnet, coordinator of European Insafe network. Social networks such as Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo are some of the most popular web sites among young people in Europe, and 57 percent of young people make their online social network profiles public and disclose a great deal of personal information (European Schoolnet, 2007). Internet safety awareness is an urgent global issue. What if we worked across boundaries; not only country boundaries but also commercial and public boundaries in order to educate, raise awareness, and catalyze at a local level? Insafe is a European network of country consortia or nodes working together to support safe surfing for children. It is coordinated by the European Schoolnet and supported by the European Commission.

Location Based in the European Union, although at times extending to other countries.

Aims The project aim is to consolidate numerous initiatives around the world, exchange and pool expertise and resources, and raise awareness of Internet and mobile safety issues and solutions through strong, highly visible actions. “The ultimate goal is to empower young people using Internet and mobile technology through information and education campaigns” (Richardson, J 2007).

Primary Objectives • Develop synergy between national approaches, avoid duplication, and provide a common platform • Monitor to measure effectiveness, forecast emerging risks • Build knowledge collaboratively • Construct strategies on expert knowledge and experience • Create a virtual library of resources and practice • Generate a Europe-wide approach to cyber-safety • Development information literacy • Run helplines at a national level • Run youth panels at a national level

Rationale “One of the most publicized stories on Internet safety last year was concerned with the aftermath of Megan Meier's suicide following Lori Drew's misrepresentation of herself as "Josh Evans" on MySpace. This story continues to attract much polemic as, in part, it demonstrates the limitations of existing laws on the issue of cyber-bullying. In the words of the latest report from the Internet Safety Technical Task Force: "Bullying and harassment, most often by peers, are the most frequent threats that minors face, both online and offline."(Safer Internet Newsletter, 2009).

To minimize the many risks from online illegal and harmful content and conduct, there is a need for better awareness of safe Internet use, in particular for teachers, parents, and children (who are generally the earliest adopters of new technology, heaviest Internet users, and the greatest risk takers). The European Commission, under the umbrella of the Safety Internet Programme, set up Insafe to ensure the best use of funding and reach the largest possible number of people. http://resources.eun.org/insafe/Online%20behaviour%20of%20young%20people.pdf

Description Insafe, launched in 2004, is a European awareness-raising network coordinated by the European Schoolnet and supported by the European Commission through the Safer Internet Program.

Insafe partners, in close cooperation with partners and other key actors, work closely together to share best practices, information, and resources. The network interacts with industry, schools, and families with the aim of empowering people to bridge the digital divide between home and school and between generations. (www.saferInternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/about.htm)

The program currently provides: • Trilingual European gateway to information, tools, and resources • A regular newsletter, with quick link updates on important issues • European-wide monitoring of emerging risks and innovative protective measures • Training workshops on diverse facets of awareness-raising, e.g. impact monitoring, event planning, optimization of media reach • An online “good practice” kit transposable into widely diverse cultural environments • A staff-exchange mechanism between national awareness nodes to facilitate knowledge sharing • Dissemination of customer satisfaction surveys and six-monthly progress reports to optimize quality and reach

Nodes must offer national helplines to answer questions and concerns of young people relating to online experiences or harmful or illegal online content they encounter. They also run youth panels which meet once a year for a professionally moderated debate and discussion. The debate allows the collection of rich, qualitative data on the value of helplines, key issues such as experiences of cyber-bullying and is also guided by results of surveys (e.g. the EuroBarometer questions). For example during the most recent EuroBarometer questionnaire parents often said their children do not have access to the Internet in their rooms, however the youth panel revealed access to the Internet was still taking pace through game consoles.

As part of the project, Insafe also leads the annual Safer Internet Day throughout Europe and beyond, with over 500 events in more than 50 countries targeting young people. Safer Internet Day 2009 saw the launch of an information campaign empowering teenagers to keep control when online, targeting 12- to 17-year-olds. In particular, the campaign used online video to spread the message: “Block bullying online! Keep it fun, keep control.”

The network interacts with five other major projects that have been set up under the European Commission’s Safer Internet program; EU Kids Online, the Youth Protection Round Table, SIP- BENCH which benchmarks filtering systems, Quatro Plus for the rating of web sites, and the INHOPE network of hotlines, which allow members of the public to report illegal content on the Internet.

Knowledge Sharing Knowledge sharing is core to the network’s activities and is supported by a number of different tools: • Bi-annual training workshops and steering committee meetings to forge relationships and share experience. • Six mentorship bursaries every year allow country nodes to work directly with another node to better understand best practices. For example, Poland has set up a very successful helpline and Cyprus was able to visit Poland on a bursary exchange to see Screen grab from the European information campaign online video: the implementation firsthand. "Keep it fun, keep control! Block bullying online!" • The Insafe community platform is a private online area which www.saferinternet.org/shared/data/saferinternet.org/SID09/spot/safer_ supports the exchange and sharing of resources and best Internet_day_clip.html © Insafe, used with permission practices, and voting across the network, and allows nodes to display expertise through membership profiles. • Insafe portal provides information on national node activities and events, as well as access to the virtual resource library which comprises more than 530 multi-lingual resources. • Insafe Newsletter reports on recent node events and activities, as well as industry and academia. The objective is to be a “multi- sector platform that will increasingly appeal to a wide spectrum of subscribers” (from 2007 report).

Scale 26 European nodes, plus affiliations with Argentina, Australia, and the U.S. As the network gets stronger it is receiving increasing numbers of requests from other countries wishing to find out more regarding what they see as a very strong model. It also cooperates with another 20 or so countries annually through the framework of Safer Internet Day.

Staffing • European level: a coordinator for seamless, effective synchronization of actions • National level: 29 awareness nodes, with about 3-5 representatives in each, consisting of one or more organizations working together in a consortium

Nodes are run by organizations ranging from public broadcast, media institutions, humanitarian organizations, and private-sector content providers all the way to government ministries and education-related public enterprise, ensuring a wide diversity of specialists able to tackle almost any issue that emerges.

Four major activity sectors are represented: • Advisory, consultative, and regulatory bodies • Public departments and institutions • Consumer protection agencies • Humanitarian organizations

Cost • Every two years each node, including the European coordinating node, applies for its own grant from the EC, ranging from 200,000 to 2,000,000 euros. At present, the overall cost of the project is somewhere in the region of 16-17 million euros (ref website). Only 75 percent of the cost is covered by EC, with national nodes finding the other 25 percent. • So far Insafe has received renewed funding for the Pie chart showing Activity Sectors of nodes, Insafe Annual Public Report November 2007 periods 2004-2006, 2006-2008 and 2008-2010. © Insafe, used with permission.

Price NA

Leading Practice Continuity In Staff and Nodes Continuity of membership is critical. Insafe’s work is perceived as very rewarding which means people tend to stay in their nodes and remain part of the network for a long time, creating a strong sense of friendship and teamwork. The network strongly seeks to keep its membership permanent. Stability in staffing has ensured strong links between countries and good team work at all levels, as well as a willingness and pride in sharing best practices.

Collaborating by Consensus The coordinating node coordinates on a consensus basis; there is no contractual link with other nodes. This ensures that work packages are always designed based on what countries need and want both now and in the future.

Multi-stakeholder Approach Diversity of specialists, as well as the calling in of other top experts, allow the network to keep up with rapid changes in technology and to gain support from a range of sectors. Collaboration also extends to other areas with experts able to share their expertise with other organizations with which they are members in order to further disseminate best practice and ensure broad implementation of actions, for example, knowledge sharing at the annual Safety Internet Forum organized by the European Commission.

Knowledge and Resource Sharing with Sensitivity to Diversity Communication between nodes is sometimes complicated due to distance, language barriers, and national contexts. However, nodes rate communication with the coordinating node as good quality and, in this way, synergy is maintained at all levels. Insafe has been successful in sharing resources and best practices across its member countries. An example of its resource sharing is the eSafety toolkit which was developed by looking at all resources available for children from all nodes between 8-12 years old. The team examined and retained best practices from all sources to produce an Internet safety kit for nine countries. The kit was launched in 2008. The kit has been a significant success and its use has spread to a total of 14 countries. Norway recently ordered 20,000 copies and there are daily requests from individual schools often requesting for 100-200 kits.

An Arabic version has been recreated for use with ethnic minorities in Europe.

Lessons Learned Translation and Adaptation No resource can simply be picked up, put into another language, and reused. Extensive adaptation is needed to match culture and context.

Importance of Research and Statistics The Insafe network’s success depends on three steps which work in a perpetual cycle: 1. Bring available knowledge together. 2. Implement a campaign to suit national requirements. 3. Assessment of impact (easily forgotten), with individual nodes sharing feedback through training sessions and required to act on results.

E-safety Toolkit examples Value of Face-to-Face Meetings and Events www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/resources/e_safety_kit.htm While national nodes have the opportunity to communicate and share © Insafe, used with permission. ideas using a number of online collaboration tools, the three face-to- face meetings every year have ensured real interactions and friendship. Face-to-face events such as the Safer Internet Day held every year in February have been especially successful in reinforcing the impact of the network.

Need for Qualitative Input and Focus Groups While surveys have provided valuable information with which to work, the youth panel and other focus groups have provided the richest insights into technology use.

Leapfrogging As the project has progressed it has become clear that not only despite, but sometimes even due to the group’s wide differences in technology maturity, collaboration opportunities have flourished. A good example is the collaboration between Spain and Denmark. The Danes are advanced technology users with access to the Internet through PCs, but also wide coverage through mobile phones. Spain, in general terms, is much less advanced and does not have a high household broadband penetration, but has leapfrogged directly to Internet access through mobile phones. In this way, Spain has found it very valuable to work directly with Denmark to learn from their experience.

Recurring suggestions from individual nodes for improved practice were: • Aim for wider dissemination of awareness materials • Map awareness materials to educational curricula • Follow-up activities to maintain awareness momentum

Impact In 2006 Insafe launched an online survey which collected responses from parents in 27 European countries. Results indicated the potential access to harmful or illegal content on the Internet is a serious problem: • Nearly one in five parents believes his or her child has encountered harmful or illegal content on the Internet. • According to parents, the home is the location where children are most likely to encounter harmful or illegal content. • 44% of parents would like more information about how to protect their child from illegal or harmful content and contact. • Respondents are most keen on receiving information about using the Internet in a safer way from schools (36 percent), the Internet provider (31 percent), and the media (21 percent). • Close to half of the respondents say that filtering or blocking tools avoiding the access to certain web sites are applied when their child uses the Internet (48 percent) (Safer Internet, Eurobarometer, May 2006). http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/docs/eurobarometer/eurobarometer_2005_25_ms.pdf

Besides supplying the network with information and insight into risk-taking behavior online and providing a focus for future activities, the survey provided an opportunity to deliver safety tips in a playful context to respondents.

There are 850 subscriptions to the newsletter and the number continues to rise steadily. The newsletter is read by most of the major Internet safety awareness organizations across the world.

Nodes rate communication with the coordinating node as good quality.

Attending training events is a well-established method of sharing knowledge, resources, and expertise. In a survey taken following a training event in Cyprus in 2007, 100 percent of nodes (N=17) rated the overall benefit to their node from having attended to be "good" or "very good."

Insafe does not rate its achievements according to the national impact of individual nodes, rather it focuses on its success in supporting the dissemination and sharing of experience and best practice. However, Insafe does collect data regarding best practice national campaigns and their results. The most recent survey of best practices (Insafe Best Practice Survey, January 2008), found common approaches were:

Strong Industry Cooperation For example; Cyprus recently set up the first-ever Cybercrime unit. The Cyprus Insafe node ensured a strong relationship right from the beginning by offering them a Police Training Workshop to establish a concrete relationship.

Reaching Children Through New Media: Virtual Worlds, Games, and Interactive Web Experiences For example, Belgium produced an online game available at www.saferinternet.be simulation to help the 9 to 12 year-olds create a blog, taking into account risks and opportunities. An English translation of the game is already available and countries can acquire the rights to adapt it for their national context. They also ran a webvertising campaign, in which they simulated a special offer for free mobile phone subscription online, available on www.click2win.be, which requires them to provide personal details online. 20,000 teenagers were "caught" in one month. The free participation of the majors in the webvertising campaign was an interesting precedent.

Blanket All-Media Campaigns For example, Iceland’s Computer Game Campaign. “Prior to the campaign, SAFT conducted a national survey on children’s computer and online game use. A brochure for parents on computer games and the PEGI rating system was published in cooperation with the Association of Film Rights Holders in Iceland and with support from Microsoft Iceland. The brochure was distributed through the elementary schools for every school child in Iceland to take home to their parents. At the same time, advertising banners appeared on buses driving around Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, web banners on selected websites, and animation advertisements were shown in film theatres and on television. Newspaper articles on computer games and ratings were published in the main newspapers in Iceland. A national survey, on the knowledge of video game labeling before and after the awareness campaign demonstrated that about 36 percent of the population buy video games for children and teenagers. Before the campaign 75 percent of the total population said that they always looked at the age label before buying a video game. After the campaign the total number had risen to 83 percent, with women being more likely to check labels than men. The study also showed a 35 percent increase in the knowledge of the PEGI rating system among those who said they bought computer games for children” (Insafe Best Practice Survey, 2008). Iceland considered the campaigns a huge success, which achieved all its targets. They identified that its effectiveness might be improved by more extensive follow-up activities to key target groups.

Ensuring Children Are Active Participants In Their Own Learning, as Experts and Designers For example, Iceland ran an “all media campaign on net-ethics" in which teenagers were involved in designing the messages, and in Denmark, Helpline counsellors were engaged through virtual tours through Habbohotel.dk with child expert users as guides. Habbo hotel is available in 19 countries worldwide and is a model that can be reused internationally.

Adapting Existing Materials Many nodes have made their materials easily available for reuse. For example, Latvia ran a TV Campaign called “Do IT also on the Internet!” using three TV clips originally broadcast in Germany and modified and adapted to Latvian.

Creating a Feedback Loop Every node runs a survey to collect information from children regarding their online activities. In Sweden, there is a youth panel with six to eight girls and boys, aged 13–18, from the local community. The panel empowers grown-ups to start a conversation with children and young people about their everyday life online, their positive and negative experiences. Involving children and young people, "the true experts," was considered especially valuable.

Many of the best practice resources can be viewed and downloaded from the Insafe Library at: www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/resources.cfm

Technology • Infrastructure Web database (currently being redesigned), dial-up, or broadband • Hardware Internet connected computers • Software Web Browser • Media A wide range of media, including games, quizzes, and surveys but with an emphasis on text-based documents

Conclusion Insafe is a significant community not only in its core aim to raise awareness through a wide variety of activities, but also as an effective model for cross-country collaboration and knowledge sharing. The catalog of 58 examples of best practice from 13 nations and the 1,413 resources shared through the Insafe portal provides an indication of its wider success.

Through a highly blended approach to collaboration, the diversity of its experts and partners, carefully coordinated relationships, and emphasis on evaluation and review, it has proven itself capable of keeping up with the rapidly changing online landscape and with the varied needs of its members despite the challenges of cross-border communication. The network’s awareness raising achievements and the contributions it has made to the development of reusable Internet safety resources for teaching and learning pave the way for changes in schooling through the use of new technology.

As online activity increases at a rapid pace, and as the rest of the world starts to come online, demand for Insafe’s experience and knowledge also continues to grow.

Similar Projects See “You Decide” case study.

Read the Education Best Practices Whitepaper and other case studies at: www.cisco.com/web/strategy/docs/education/CiscoEdBestPracticesWhitePaper-D2_V1.pdf

Sources European Schoolnet, 2006, Safer Internet Eurobarometer: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/docs/eurobarometer/eurobarometer_2005_25_ms.pdf

European Schoolnet, 2007, Online behavior of Young People: A European Perspective, Insafe: http://resources.eun.org/insafe/Online%20behaviour%20of%20young%20people.pdf

Insafe Best Practice Survey 2008 (not available online)

Insafe, 2009, Safer Internet Newsletter, February 2009: www.saferInternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/news/articles/0209/editorial.htm

Richardson, J, 2007, Insafe Public Annual Report, 2007: http://resources.eun.org/insafe/D1.5_1_%20Annual%20report071214Final1.pdf

Richardson, J, 2007, Young people struggle to maintain their privacy online, Insafe Newsletter February 2007: www.saferInternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/news/insafe_survey.htm

Richardson, J, 2009, Interviews, email correspondence, and materials sent by Janet Richardson, Insafe Project Manager

Richardson, J, 2008, Insafe annual report 2008: promoting safe and responsible use of online technology (not yet available online)

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Americas Headquarters Asia Pacific Headquarters Europe Headquarters Cisco Systems, Inc. Cisco Systems (USA) Pte. Ltd. Cisco Systems International BV Amsterdam, San Jose, CA Singapore The Netherlands

Cisco has more than 200 offices worldwide. Addresses, phone numbers, and fax numbers are listed on the Cisco Website at www.cisco.com/go/offices.