Communiqués de Presse

Children receive prizes for Safer Internet activities

On 11 June 2007, teachers and children from eight winning schools across the world will receive their prizes for award-winning contributions to the Safer Internet Day 2007 competition, organised by Insafe last February. The winning schools from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Poland, UK and USA achieved the best results in the categories of e-privacy, netiquette, power of images and innovation. Each winning team produced a range of safety awareness materials focusing on the theme of their category.

The awards are as follows

• Award for e-Privacy: Poland: Zespol Szkol Handlowo-Ekonomicznych w Bialymstoku and Bulgaria: PGGPT "Nikola Vaptsarov". Project title: “Modern communication tools - for and against our privacy”.
• Award for Netiquette: Greece: Athens College and the Czech Republic: ZS TGM Mnichovice. Project title: "e-values".
• Award for Power of Images: Poland: Gimnazjum Nr 6 w ¯orach and Greece: Primary school of Panagia Thassos. Project title: "The picture as the vehicle of bad and good news".
• Award for Innovation: United Kingdom: Semley Primary School and the United States: Athens-Chilesburg Elementary School. Project title: "The Power of Image".

Materials still can be found online at: http://blog.eun.org/SID2007, and a full project gallery at http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/projectsgallery.cfm.

School representatives will receive their prizes from dignitaries from the European Commission, and industry sponsors UPC and Vodafone, including €1, 500 cash for school equipment, a two day-trip to Brussels for a teacher and pupil from each winning school and USB bracelets for every pupil in the winning classes. An audience of more than 100 people will be present to celebrate the event. Staff from national Insafe nodes from the Czech Republic, Iceland, Belgium and Germany will also be present.

The ceremony will take place in the 16th Century Gothic Room at the Town Hall, located at the UNESCO World Heritage site in the heart of Brussels’ famous Grand’Place. The ceremony will be followed by a reception, with drinks kindly offered by the City of Brussels.

For further information, contact:

Janice Richardson
Janice.richardson@eun.org
Tel. +32/2/790.75.77

Sofia Aslanidou
Sofia.Aslanidou@eun.org
Tel. +32/2/790.75.73

About Safer Internet Day

Almost 40 countries participated in the fourth edition of Safer Internet Day (SID) which took place on 6 February 2006. The event was organised by European Schoolnet, coordinator of Insafe, the European safer internet network (www.saferinternet.org). Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for the Information Society and Media was once again patron of Safer Internet Day, as in the past two years.

The highlight of the day was a worldwide blogathon, which reached Australia on 6 February, and progressed westward through the day to finish up in the USA and Canada. The blogathon included the voices of hundreds of youngsters. In the framework of a competition launched in October 2006, more than 200 schools in 25 countries across the globe worked in pairs, using technology to cross geographical borders, to create internet safety awareness material on one of three themes: e-privacy, netiquette, and power of image. On Safer Internet Day, all of the projects they produced were uploaded to the blogathon.

About Insafe

http://www.saferinternet.org.

The mission of the Insafe cooperation network is to empower citizens to use the Internet, as well as other information and communication technologies, safely and effectively. Insafe promotes positive, ethical use of online information and communication technologies. The network calls for shared responsibility for the protection of the rights and needs of citizens, in particular children and youths, by government, educators, parents, media, industry and all other relevant actors. The network is coordinated by European Schoolnet.

About European Schoolnet

http://www.europeanschoolnet.org.

European Schoolnet (EUN) is a unique not-for-profit consortium of 28 ministries of education in Europe created in 1997. EUN provides major European education portals for teaching, learning and collaboration and leads the way in bringing about change in schooling through the use of new technology.

Since its establishment, European Schoolnet (EUN) has been at the forefront in supporting the European dimension in schools. This goal is achieved through projects, competitions, activities, communication and information exchange at all levels of school education using innovative technologies.