EUROPEAN COMMISSION
PRESS RELEASE
Brussels, 11 February 2014
Global Safer Internet Day 2014: “Let's create a Better
Internet together”
Safer Internet Day is being celebrated today in over 100 countries (including the USA for
the first time.) In one of thousands of events taking place European Commission VicePresident Neelie Kroes will reward the creators of the best online content for kids and,
together with INSAFE, will launch a Youth Manifesto on how to make a better Internet
based on ideas from young people.
Neelie Kroes said: “This initiative is exciting – it’s young people speaking up directly about
what they want from the most important infrastructure in our world today, the internet. I
have no doubt they will follow through with action.”
Safer Internet Day 2014 is all about a better Internet to encourage people of all ages to
create good online content for youngsters. The winners of the best online content are
chosen from 1100 entries. The awards will be given to the adults and children from
Belgium, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Iceland, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Russia and the United Kingdom.
Neelie Kroes said: "I see children and young people doing amazing things with digital
tools. We need to encourage that, help them to be safe, and give them ways to create a
better internet themselves – and to stand up against cyber-bullies.”
Winners of the best online content awards in four categories:
 Young individuals - 15 year old Dutch girl Jiami Xili Jongejan for her blog Lifesplash
on fashion, school, cooking, and sports.
 Young people groups - Video blog about the Polish language created by the pupils of
Saint John Cantius Primary School in Bestwina, Poland.
 Adult non-professional - Paxel 123 games for entertaining, educational games for
children in pre-school & primary school; developed by a teacher Anna Margrét
Ólafsdóttir from Iceland.
 Adult professional - The Czech creators of the website Web a Webik – Junior Radio
offering youngsters recorded fairy tales, online games & other interactive features.
Background
As part of its Strategy for a Better Internet for Children, the European Commission
supports the INSAFE/INHOPE network of Safer Internet centres across all Member States.
It also convened the CEO Coalition, under which 31 top tech companies completed a series
of changes and introduced tools for better consumer protection.
The works across a range of areas to make the internet safer, including against
cybercrime.
IP/14/136
A new EU Directive has been adopted to fight large-scale attacks on information systems,
along with an overarching cyber security strategy of the European Union being presented
by the Commission. In parallel, at Europol headquarters in the Hague, Commissioner
Malmström has set up the European Cybercrime Centre, or EC3, dedicated to
strengthening the EU's defences against online organised crime – fraud, theft of credit
card details, extortion through virus attacks, and similar crimes.
A Directive has also been adopted to tackle sexual exploitation of children, covering the
prosecution of offenders, protection of victims and prevention measures. Furthermore, in
December 2012, Ministers of Justice and representatives from 52 countries met in
Brussels to form a Global Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse Online. Set up following an
initiative from Cecilia Malmström and the US Attorney-General, the alliance – consisting of
countries from the United States to New Zealand to Cambodia, to all the members of the
EU – have committed themselves to strengthening resources to identify more of the
victims appearing in child abuse photos and videos online.
The Commission is also implementing an Action Plan to build trust in the wider Digital
Single Market for e-commerce and online services (IP/12/10). That trust will be achieved
by improving legal certainty about the rights and obligations of businesses and consumers,
by improving the quality and reliability of various online activities and services, by
addressing security concerns when it comes to online payments and by combating abuse
and resolving disputes more effectively.
Useful Links
Safer Internet Day
Best content for kids award
Better internet for kids in the EU
Safer Internet Day music video
SID TV
Hashtag: #betterinternet #SID2014 #saferinternetday
Neelie Kroes' website
Follow Neelie Kroes on Twitter
Contacts
Email: comm-kroes@ec.europa.eu Tel: +32.229.57361 Twitter: @RyanHeathEU
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Annex: The winners of the best online content awards
Category 1 - Adult non-professional: 1st Iceland, 2nd Hungary, 3rd Belgium
1. Entertaining, educational games for children in preschool and primary school
2. A portal about architecture to help people better understand the built environment
3. A site built by students from ArteveldeHogeschool, Ghent to help kids feel at ease
while in hospital.
Category 2 - Adult professional: 1st Czech Republic, 2nd Portugal, 3rd United
Kingdom
1. The website "Web a Webik Radia Junior" offers young users spoken fairy tales, easy
online games, creating pictures
2. Three aliens make an emergency landing on Earth. To repair their spaceship they
will have to find materials and overcome a series of obstacles. To help them pass
each of the obstacles the player will need to use logical thinking, mathematical
knowledge and memory schemes.
3. The Anti-social network, a film produced by jam-av in partnership with Eastlands
Primary School to highlight the problems of bullying and cyber bullying.
Category 3 – Youth – Individuals: 1st the Netherlands, 2nd Poland, 3rd Russia
1. Lifesplash Blog rooted in fashion, school, cooking & sports from a 15 year old girl
to her peers
2. Blog about books and events related to reading, founded by a 10-year-old pupil in
2011. He describes books for children of his own age as well as books for smaller
children (he reads books to his 4 year old sister).
3. The blog of a Russian teenager touching on history, politics, ICT at school and the
ways to earn money.
Category 4 – Youth – Groups: 1st Poland, 2nd Romania, 3rd Belgium
1. Video blog about the Polish language created by primary school students and
coordinated by Polish language teacher.
2. A blog with information for children made by 4 Romanian youngsters
KIDSCAM helps children make films.
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