Back to search

Digital - new level of safety

2023-1-DE04-KA152-YOU-0001378082023Mobility of young peoplefinalizedGood practice
Countries: DE|SK|IT|PL|LT|RO|EL · Grant: €35,518
Digital safety

Objectives

Internet safety or online safety or cyber safety or E-Safety is trying to be safe on the internet and is the knowledge of maximizing the user's personal safety and security risks to private information and property associated with using the internet, and the self-protection from computer crime. However, very often, especially between youngsters, internet safety and data privacy and security is not considered of high importance and they only rarely take additional actions or use privacy tools to ensure their safety on internet. While our youngsters found this topic of crucial importance during the times of various fraudulent activities online, identity thefts, stalking and others. The higher attention to this topic was attracted by new / updated EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which was released very recently in May, 2018 (https://gdpr.eu/what-is-gdpr/). Because of adoption of this new regulation more people became aware that their internet activity is actually tracked in some way - Websites are collecting and storing information - your personal data and analysing it. After adopting this new regulation the rules of doing so got stricter and citizens are informed with more details what kind of actions are done with their data and for what purposes this data is collected. Our organisation's youngsters asked 20 randomly met youngsters in Berlin about GDPR. Most of them (17) have heard about it and could identify that it's somehow related to their personal data which websites and organisations are collecting. Out of those 17 only 9 could actually explain what's the actual difference of "before" and "after" adoption of GDPR regarding their personal data protection and privacy. Journalist Gleen Greenwald in his famous TedX speech Why privacy matters (2014) (https://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters/up-next ) talked about issue that people are not taking care of their privacy and covering it with “I have nothing to hide” argument. “I always say the same thing to them. I say, "Here's my email address. What I want you to do is email me the passwords to all of your email accounts <...> all of them, because I want to be able to just troll through what it is you're doing online, read what I want to read. After all, if you're not a bad person, if you're doing nothing wrong, you should have nothing to hide." Not a single person has taken me up on that offer.”. Inspired by privacy’s issue youngsters from Polish partner organisation made a short survey with their classmates about privacy tools. Out of 23 youngsters only 10 have heard / could concretely identify some privacy tool (e.g. VPN) and only 4 of them were using some privacy tool. It shows how serious the situation is and lack of attention is paid to privacy and safety on internet. Social media privacy settings is also an issue for which not enough attention is paid. According to Special Eurobarometer (2019) ( https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_2956) although 73% of respondents (out of total 27000 respondents) have heard at least one of the six rights guarranteet by GDPR, almost half (43%) did not change their privacy setting mostly due to reasoning of “trusting the sites”; “don’t know how to do it” or “not worried about sharing your personal data”. It's important topic and thing to take care of. Project and discussion about internet safety will also help youngsters with obstacles to integrate into economic and social life. We involved 14 participants with fewer opportunities as they are more vulnerable to fraudulent online activities. Project helped to prevent these incidents, protect themselves and se social media and other internet websites wisely. Goal: Changing attitudes about internet safety and raising digital skills of 38 youngster (+7 leaders) (out of which 14 youngsters with fewer opportunities – economic, social / geographic barriers, disability, barriers linked to discrimination) by organizing a youth exchange from 19th to 28th of April (+1 travel day), 2024 in Kaunas, Lithuania. Objectives: O1: To analyse the reasons of irresponsible online behaviour and look for solutions with 38 young participant (+7 leaders) O2: To learn about benefits of using privacy tools for 38 young participant (+7 leaders) and local communities O3: To change attitude and behaviour with private personal data, using improved digital skills for 38 young participant (+7 leaders) and local communities. Project was in line with the priorities of The Erasmus+ programme (2021 – 2027) of: digital transformations – taking up of digital technologies in youth; bridging Europe’s knowledge, skills and competences gap (in digital field); inclusion and diversity – project included participants with fewer opportunities and in this way it contributed to equal opportunities and access of underrepresented participants; dismantling barriers related to socio-economic status, discrimination and geographical location.

Project partners (7)