Safer Internet Youth Forum

Overview
The 2008 Safer Internet Youth Forum was organized by the European Commission as part of Safer Internet Day activities in February 2008, and involved 27 young people between 12 and 19 years who had taken part in national youth forums in Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK.

The forum was asked to provide views on what could be done to make the use of online technologies safer with respect to the use of mobile phones and social networking websites. The forum also discussed effective tools and methods for raising awareness of safe use of online technologies.

A number of recommendations for government, industry and other stakeholders were developed by the forum participants:


 * including online safety in school curricula
 * giving prominence to safety information on social media websites
 * enhancing the privacy of social media profiles and accounts
 * providing options for reporting problems to appropriate authorities
 * targeting and delivery of online safety information.36

This advice informed the development of the European Commission's Safer Internet Programme 2009–13, which focuses on the integration of online safety information in school curricula and the need to individually target programs to different age groups.37