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European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA)
News article7 February 2022European Health and Digital Executive Agency, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety

Happy Safer Internet Day! Together for a better internet

safer internet day

Safer Internet Day is globally celebrated in February and is co-organised by the Insafe-INHOPE network, with the support of the European Commission.

The main objectives of the campaign are to promote a safe and positive use of digital technology, especially among children and young people, and raise awareness on online safety. The campaign reaches out to children and young people, parents and carers, teachers, educators and social workers, as well as industry, decision makers and politicians, to encourage everyone to play their part in creating a better internet.

The first Safer Internet Programme was launched in 1999. Since 2015 Safer Internet Centres (SICs) across 29 European countries including Norway and Iceland, were supported through co-funding under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Telecom Programme. Under the Connecting Europe Facility Telecom Programme, a total of €49.9 million of funding was granted to Safer Internet Centres from 2015 to 2021. To continue supporting the work of the Safer Internet Centres, HaDEA launched a Call for Proposals under the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) with a closing date of 22 February 2022.

One of the 29 Safer Internet Centres that received funding under the Connecting Europe Facility Programme is Internet Segura for Kids (IS4K) in Spain. The main activities are:

  • Raising awareness and training minors, young people, families, educators and professionals working with minors, through the development of national campaigns, initiatives and programmes.
  • Offering a helpline service to advise and assist minors, families, educators and professionals working with minors on how to face risks on the internet such as harmful content, dangerous contacts and inappropriate behaviours.
  • Offering a hotline for receiving and managing reports from the public, related to illegal online child sexual abuse material (CSAM), in collaboration with the Spanish Law Enforcement Agencies and the Public Prosecutor's Office.
  • Organising Safer Internet Day (SID) in Spain.

Moreover, IS4K tries to show how children and adolescents can help create a safer internet through cyber security and the responsible use of the internet. One of the many resources developed by IS4K is the Series of lesson plans about safety and security at schools for different age groups, comprising of lesson plans about safety and security. The scope of these lesson plans is to foster, among people under the age of 18, personal responsibility and critical thinking as essential skills.

Meet our colleagues Cristina and Manuel from the Spanish Safer Internet Centre and learn about their work in the following videos:

 Background information

The Digital Europe Programme (DEP) will build on and continue to support the work of SICs which has already been carried out under the Connecting Europe Facility Telecom programme between 2015 and 2021. DEP aims to build the strategic digital capacities of the EU and to facilitate the wide deployment of digital technologies. With an overall budget of €7.5 billion, out of which €0.8 billion is managed by HaDEA, the programme will support investments in the following sectors:

  • High Performance Computing
  • Cloud, data and Artificial Intelligence
  • Cybersecurity
  • Advanced digital skills
  • Accelerating best use of technologies

HaDEA manages actions under Cloud, data and Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Digital Skills and Accelerating best use of technologies.

Useful Links

DEP work programmes adoption

First calls for proposals under DEP 2021-2022 (deadline 22 February)

Programme Sector
Digital
Programme
Digital Europe Programme
Tags
Digital technologyEvent