Safer Internet Day

Hannah (17) from the Rhine-Main region has a typical Net biography. She was lured into the subscription trap at the age of 12 with her first mobile phone. When she was 15, a classmate claimed to have an intimate photograph of her and threatened to publish it on Facebook. And finally, her smartphone was stolen while she was having swimming lessons. The police quickly dispelled her initial confidence that her data on the phone were secure: pros can do almost anything. She panicked and blocked a bank account whose PIN was stored on the mobile phone. But Hannah has learnt a lot from this and has put her cell phone away for a while. Now she ‘fasts’ regularly – spending two weeks not using her cell phone at all and keeping out of the Net. “You get a completely different perception of your environment. You also notice how everyone around you always have their eyes glued to their mobiles,” she says. She says she now has more time for sleeping, doing her homework, and for real contacts with friends.

‘Play your part for a better internet’

Safer Internet Day aims to encourage experiences like these. It’s an initiative of the European Commission for more internet security. In Germany, ‘klicksafe’ initiates and coordinates the activities with the aim of getting as many players and institutions as possible to take part in the day of action – on the second day of the second week of the second month. This year’s Safer Internet Day’s motto is ‘Play your part for a better internet’. More than 200 institutions in Germany are contributing to the main topic, ‘Extremes in the Net’, staging public events on how best to handle the Net and its pitfalls. Educationalists, parents, young people, but also children can take part in workshops, discussions and actions showing how to create a secure password, explaining what personal data you shouldn’t divulge – and recommending that you sometimes need a break from the internet.

Safer Internet Day on 9 February 2016

www.klicksafe.de

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