Today, 11^th February 2020, we celebrate Safer Internet Day (SID) – the annual flagship campaign under the European Strategy for Better Internet for Children.

On Thursday, 21 November 2019, the Safer Internet Forum (SIF) will take place in Brussels Belgium. With a theme of "From online violence to digital respect", it will also celebrate 20 years of safer/better internet funding by the European Commission.

As the SELMA (Social and Emotional Learning for Mutual Awareness) project is drawing to a close, now is the time to take stock of what has been achieved, with a Hacking Hate awareness-raising week and a "Drive change, hack online hate" conference.

In a world that is increasingly dependent on technology and the internet, it comes as no surprise that social media is practically omnipresent in young people's lives. More often than not it is the negative effects of social media that we hear about, while the positives are frequently overlooked. Social media can contribute massively to children and young people's education, preparing them to become active and well-informed individuals, and providing them with opportunities to learn, develop, interact and find emotional support.

It's not always easy to be a teacher nowadays – increasingly complex and overloaded curricula, new subjects, ever limited time and a generational gap with students. Now factor in also the evolving technological landscape and it's easy to understand why some teachers and educational professionals feel ill-prepared to support their pupils and students when it comes to their online lives and to ensuring their eSafety.

The seventh edition of EU Code Week will take place 5-20 October 2019. Ahead of this, teachers, trainers and activity organisers will get a chance to use new training opportunities and learning resources to reach more schoolchildren in the EU and Western Balkans.

Online hate speech is a growing problem. Young people experience it frequently on social media, and it has been proven to affect their development. Education is part of the solution. For this reason, the SELMA project has launched a toolkit that offers comprehensive and hands-on solutions to approach the issue of online hate with young people aged 11-16.

Thanks to the first edition of the European Media Literacy Week, media literacy is on everyone's lips! So what can teachers do to boost their and their students' media literacy skills? One exciting thing to have on the radar is the Social Media Literacy for Change MOOC (massive open online course), taking place on 29 April until 12 June 2019. The MOOC aims to help European citizens in general and young people in particular, become active, creative and well-informed citizens of the digital world.

The SELMA project has recently published "Hacking Online Hate: Building an Evidence Base for Educators". This research report highlights how online hate plays a significant role in teenager's online media experience, while calling for a more pro-active awareness and education effort from all stakeholders. Initiatives to monitor or report online hate speech only scrape the surface of a broader culture of online hate. The problem must be addressed through a more holistic approach that takes into account the nature of online hate, its causes and consequences.

On Tuesday, 5 February 2019, the Safer Internet Day campaign turned 16 – and what a great day it was! Under the unifying slogan of "Together for a better internet", we called upon all stakeholders to join forces and bring their contribution to making the internet a safer and better place for all – especially for children and young people.