VITERBO – Educate the new generations in conscious and safe use of the internet and especially social media, avoiding becoming a victim or becoming the creator of forms of abuse. These are some of the topics touched on in the meetings that staff of the State Police of the Operational Section for Cyber Security of Viterbo held during the school year just ended with students, teachers and parents in various schools in the capital and the province.
The experts of the Viterbo Postal Police met 6,345 pupils, 508 teachers, 225 parents and 295 other participants in the various events and conferences held in 70 schools. The police have started a dialogue aimed at establishing a bond of trust and sharing between young people and institutions, illustrating the correct and safe methods for surfing the Web, in order to recognize the small and large pitfalls that hide in the virtual universe in which they they dip daily.
The curiosity of young people, modern internet users, was attracted in particular by two topics: online solicitation by strangers who, thanks to the characteristics of the network, manage to “disguise” themselves as their peers and the responsibility in sharing images private, even just with friends. The prevention activity of the State Police towards phenomena such as cyber bullying and hate speech takes shape with the training of very young people from their first steps online in the correct use of words within social networks.
“A Social Life” is a traveling project developed by the Postal Police in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Merit and co-financed by the European Commission as part of the “Connected Generations” initiatives, which aims to help users of network to navigate in complete safety and to manage the data shared online with awareness and control. The objective of the training activities is to teach children to exploit the communicative potential of the web and the online community, without running risks connected to cyber bullying, violation of the privacy of others and their own, the uploading of inappropriate content, the violation of copyright and the adoption of incorrect or dangerous behavior for oneself and others, in short to educate minors in safe, conscious and responsible use of the web.
