The European Award for Best Content for Kids launches today
10/05/2013
This exciting award aims at encouraging children and adults to create new and highlight already existing child-friendly, quality online content. It is organised by the Insafe network within the framework of the European Commission's Safer Internet Programme.
European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes said: "The online world can be a great place for kids. I dream of building a Better Internet for Children: with the right online content, kids can explore, play and learn safely – ensuring they have a great time while also gaining the skills for a digital world. I hope this this competition can generate and celebrate bright ideas from across Europe".
This is the second edition of the competition, and will run in most EU member states and also in Iceland, Norway and Russia during 2013.
As a European network of experts on positive online content, POSCON, has shaped the main features of this competition, building on the successful experience of the pilot European award in 2011.
What is positive content?
Positive content can be everything from an educational website, blog, video or an app: the main thing is that it creatively supports and showcases positive content initiatives across Europe, encouraging children and young people to find positive ways to spend time online (educate, inform, stretch and stimulate imagination, enable acquiring new skills etc).
How can I participate?
Adults and children from all over Europe are invited to submit positive content initiatives aimed at children aged 4-12 years; young people can even create content for peers up to 18 years of age.
Awards will be made at national and then European level for entries by four categories of participants:
- Adult professionals (i.e. those who produce online content for a living).
- Adult non-professionals.
- Individual young people.
- School classes/groups of young people.
National heats of the competition will run until November through the Safer Internet Centres, with the best national initiatives going forward to compete at European level. The top-three European resources in each of the four categories will be recognised at an awards ceremony in Brussels on Safer Internet Day in February 2014.
Full information, and registrations of interest, can be made on the competition website at www.bestcontentaward.eu.
For further information, please contact:
Sarah Sumpter, Web Content Specialist, Insafe Project
+32 2 790 7575
About Insafe and INHOPE
Under the framework of the European Commission's Safer Internet Programme, Insafe and INHOPE work together to deliver a safer internet, promoting safe, responsible use of the internet and mobile devices to children, young people and their families, and working to identify and remove illegal content online.
Find out more by visiting the Insafe and INHOPE joint portal at www.saferinternet.eu. Here you will find links to the various safer internet centre services, by country, along with news and events, and FAQs on safer internet issues.
Alternatively, you can visit the Insafe or INHOPE websites direct (Insafe: www.saferinternet.org and INHOPE: www.inhope.org).
Better Internet for Children
In May 2012 the Commission set out a European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children to give children the digital skills and tools they need to fully and safely benefit from being online. It also aims to unlock the potential of the market for interactive, creative and educational online content.
The strategy brings together the European Commission and Member States with mobile phone operators, handset manufacturers and providers of social networking services to deliver concrete solutions for a better internet for children.
Most of the tasks of the Strategy are currently carried out through the Safer Internet Programme, which is co-funding the European network of Safer Internet Centres, co-ordinated by Insafe/INHOPE.
About POSCON
The Thematic Network POSCON – Positive Online Content and Services for Children in Europe – brings together institutions, organisations and companies from all over Europe to exchange experience and bring forward the topic of ‘positive online content and services for children’. POSCON (www.positivecontent.eu) is funded by the EC Safer Internet programme and is coordinated by the Landeszentrale für Medien und Kommunikation (LMK) Rheinland-Pfalz (Media Authority Rhineland-Palatinate, www.lmk-online.de). It is implemented in cooperation with fragFINN e.V. (www.fragfinn.de), jugendschutz.net (www.jugendschutz.net) and Stichting Mijn Kind Online (www.mijnkindonline.nl).
