Highly accountable role is played by adolescents participating in the Youth Panel each year Safer Internet Hellas, the Greek Safer Internet Center, which belongs to the Pan-European Network Safer Internet, with 31 member countries and under the European Commission. Acting as young ambassadors, after training themselves, they pass on knowledge about safe navigation, support and incident reporting lines to the rest children, participate in conferences inside and outside of Greece where they interact with their peers, while in the context of the Safer Internet action, their opinion is taken seriously when planning each information campaign.
Quarterly meeting
17 Marina Karamplia, a high school student, together with her four-year-old younger sister, Vanessa, and Nicolas Dertzos, also a high school graduate, talk about their experience: "My involvement in the Safer Internet Youth Panel began at "said Marina, who has also made contributions to the House of Representatives and the recent conference in Zappeion, under the Greek Presidency, on" Digital Minors Security ". "The youth panel meets quarterly. We are preparing for the World Safer Internet Day in February, watching videos, getting informed about pan-European conferences on secure Internet, discussing cases of complaints. After gathering information, we present them to our school. We are, therefore, socialists of ideas. Many children are unaware of the real dangers of the Internet, so our work is important. "
Τι έχει διδαχθεί η ίδια; «Να μη δημοσιεύω φωτογραφίες ή άλλα προσωπικά μου δεδομένα. Εχοντας πειστεί για τους κινδύνους του Διαδικτύου, φοβήθηκα, αλλά δεν σταμάτησα να το χρησιμοποιώ. Φροντίζω να μην εκτίθεμαι, ούτε να αποδέχομαι τον οποιονδήποτε ως φίλο στο facebook. Ειδικά σήμερα, που ακόμη και μικρά παιδιά σερφάρουν μέσω του mobile on the Internet, instead of being denied access to it, they should learn to navigate safely."
The baton on the Youth Panel has now been passed to her sister. "Vanessa was 12 years old last year. A little girl, who was not enough microphone. We heard her talk about the Internet, she got us hooked. We chose to send her to the Safer Internet European conference in Brussels in October," said Ms. Veronika Samara, coordinator of the Hellenic Safer Internet Center, referring to the selection criteria for the young ambassadors: "They should be good students, with good knowledge of English, responsibility, communication skills and appetite for the public". Vanessa, only impressed, declares from the trip: "The conference lasted five days. The topic was "A better internet with you (th)". We were children from 31 countries! People from all over Europe had come, we exchanged opinions. It was a great experience. I felt very proud." As for children from other European countries “they are more informed about the dangers of the Internet – the state supports Safer Internet a lot. On the contrary, the southern countries - Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece - have not taken the Internet and its dangers so seriously."
For Nikolas, a student of the 5th Lyceum of Larissa, his initial motives for engaging in Safer Internet were not so good: "Then I got stuck." Now "I can more easily approach my peers, inform them, while participating in activities for schools. This year, I represented my school at the Safe Internet Day conference. Later, I was invited - like Marina - to speak at the Zappeion conference.
The advantage of child internet safety ambassadors is that they themselves act as multipliers of knowledge. First we collect it and then we distribute it." What would you like to propose to the state? "Information about the safe Internet should be introduced as a lesson and its creative use should be systematically taught." How does Marina envision the Internet of the future? "There is no ideal Internet, only ideals users. Aware, who will not be affected by what they are bombarded with and will respect the rights of other users".
Their action is multi-level
Ms. Veronika Samara, coordinator of the Hellenic Center for Safe Internet and head of the Information and Vigilance Action Saferinternet.gr, explains the action of www.saferinternet.gr and the Youth Panel: "All National Safer Internet Centers are implemented with a new panel information and awareness. Next year, in fact, we join the new framework, the Connecting Europe Facility, undertaking the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) project. This year, we have 12 children - ambassadors. They approach us either through schools or individually (www.saferinternet.gr). Their action is multidimensional: they become mentors for the other children, they evaluate the SI material - questionnaires, leaflets, spots - and we take their opinion seriously. They learn to use the Internet as a creative tool. They travel to Brussels. They undertook and performed flawlessly this year the organization of the conference for Safe Internet Day. They are participating in the online consultation, Youth Manifesto, with the aim of the European Parliament voting on the best national proposals for adolescents on the future of the Internet. The role of children is extremely important. As for the benefits? They learn to express their opinion, to get involved in debates, to face an audience ".
