Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Promoting sportsmanship on the field - and on the net
Sunday, January 11, 2015
In football, a red card means expulsion from the game. On the Internet, what would a red card resemble? This week, we launched a contest here in Belgium with the Mons Football Club youth clubs to help find out.
Why Belgium and why Mons? One of our two largest European data centers is located just outside the city. We’ve invested hundreds of millions in it and that means we are going to be involved in the local community for a long time to come. Belgium’s football reputation has been growing recently with an excellent showing at the recent Brazil World Cup - its top players are found sprinkled on many of the world’s top team - and the Mons youth academy is known as one of the country’s best.
Launching the contest in Belgium
The idea came from our strong partnership with the local
Mundaneum
institution and a
partnership
forged last year with one of the world’s biggest football clubs - Real Madrid. It held a contest called
"First Prize for the Promotion of Internet Values.”
As in football, the Net bans violence towards others. When you play sports, you are obliged to help all who are injured or have a disability. On the Internet, too, you need to help others.
The Belgian contest will be open to 11-17 olds, the teenagers who are growing up on the net. From this month through April, the club’s teenage players will attend workshops and create projects - drawings, videos, or essays - that marry their passion for football, fair play and the Internet.
More than 120 young players from RAEC Mons attended the
contest launch
. Dressed in their team uniforms, most said they spent as much or more time surfing on the Net as on the playing field. They will now compete for prizes ranging from a Chromebook to a tablet. Winners will be announced on April 19 at the club’s final home match this season.
Posted by William Echikson, Head of Community Relations, Europe
Competing for the values of net sportsmanship
Friday, March 7, 2014
Real Madrid
is one of the world’s great athletic clubs. In addition to winning football and basketball championships, it is keen to promote sportsmanship, on and off the field. We worked with the club’s foundation to run a competition called
"First Prize for the Promotion of Internet Values
.”
More than 4,000 children from the Real Madrid Sport School competed, producing essays and videos promoting the values of sportsmanship for the Internet.
Contest winners meet Real Madrid basketball star Tremmel Darden
Like Real Madrid, we believe technology and sport offer powerful tools for personal development. When you play sport or surf the Internet, you aim to have fun and learn. As in sports, the Net bans violence towards others. When you play sports, you are obliged to help all who are injured or have a disability. On the Internet, too, you need to help others .
Fair play is important, off and online. If you insult an opponent on the field, the referee would expel you. When you play a team you wear a uniform with a number and name. On the Internet you have to act the same without impersonating others or lying about your identity.
Real Madrid basketball star
Tremmel Darden
and Enrique Sánchez, Vice President of Real Madrid Foundation, chaired the award ceremony. Six children from eight to 13 years old received prizes for their presentations, which included videos, powerpoints and drawings, all promoting Internet sportsmanship. For prizes, they received Android Nexus tablets and Real Madrid’s shirts signed by players, including football superstars
Cristiano Ronaldo
and
Iker Casillas
.
Posted by Francisco Ruiz Anton, Public Policy Manager, Madrid
Participating in Safer Internet Day
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
In time for Safer Internet Day this week, we revamped our
Family Safety Centre
. The new version aims to be a one-stop shop that provides step-by-step instructions for using safety tools built into Google products. We attempt to answer questions about specific topics that are most concerning to parents, such as accessing inappropriate content and meeting strangers online.
Throughout Europe, we promoted Safer Internet Day on Google home pages and our teams got into action. In Spain, for example, we participated in a presentation with local partner Protegeles bringing together kids, parents and teachers. In Israel, the Children’s Rights Committee at the Parliament met with our
Web-Rangers
, to discuss how teenagers can promote online safety.
Here in Brussels, we hosted for lunch in our office with the winners of the European Award for
Best Content for Kids
, a European wide contest highlighting content allowing young people online opportunities to learn, play, discover and invent. Winning entries such as the from the UK (see below) touch important topics like the issue of
cyberbullying
.
European Commissioner Neelie Kroes
received the winners later in the day at the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters and posted its “Let’s Create a Better Internet Together” video on YouTube.
The Internet and social platforms offer tremendous opportunities for youth: self-expression, civil engagement, and collaboration with communities. At the same time, like any tool, the web can be abused. We are proud to build powerful safety tools into our products, ranging from SafeSearch to Safety Mode. In the end, its up to all of us to stand up for for a safe and secure internet, not just on the annual Safer Internet day - but every day!
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Manager, Brussels
Promoting Child Safety in Greece
Friday, February 7, 2014
The play takes place on a farm with many animals who love to surf the Internet. Unfortunately, they soon run into trouble. A naughty pig finds how dangerous it is to reveal personal data online. A shy hen runs encounters difficulties after talking to strangers online. Playful geese learn the importance of cross-checking the reliability of information they find online. Thankfully, a wise owl and the two kids living in the farm always come to the rescue.
In Greece, in collaboration with
Saferinternet
, we took this play called
“The Internet Farm”
on tour through ten cities around the country. In addition to the theater, the program included integrated digital workshops for children and informative sessions for teachers and parents.
The project attracted widespread support. Besides the national Ministry of Education, some 30 local and regional organizations offered their support. They included
Western Greece's Education Directorate
, the
IT teachers Association of Evros
, the
municipality of Chania
, the
Region of Crete
, and the
Church of Kalamata
.
The tour had a strong impact. About 40,000 children and 3,000 parents and teachers attended the play and participated in the activities. Many theaters were fully booked, with some spectators standing or sitting on the steps.
Our hope is that the show’s lessons are carried beyond the theater. Many of the educators who are involved are taking the messages back to their classrooms. So the Internet Farm will live on - and maybe even spawn a sequel.
Posted by Dionisis Kolokotsas, Public Policy Manager, Athens
Internet safety comes to the European Parliament
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
It was a cool way to launch a new book on an important subject. Teenagers and teachers from all over Europe recently converged at the European Parliament in Brussels to promote the educational handbook
The Web we Want
. The handbook for 13-16 year olds, developed by
European Schoolnet
in partnership with
Liberty Global
and us, outlines how teenagers can benefit from the web while staying safe. Click
here
to download.
For now, the book is only available in English. In 2014, our goal is to make the handbook available in eight additional languages.
The new handbook is just the latest of our educational materials. The
YouTube Digital Citizenship
Curriculum helps high school teachers educate their students on how to flag dangerous content. Classes from the
Google Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum
identify online tricks and scams. In Germany we’ve partnered with local NGO`s to publish a set of lesson plans to address topics like online reputation. The 250-page
curriculum
is available for free.
For updates on our efforts to support kids, students, teachers and parents exploring the web in a safe and confident way make sure to check our
education resources
and
Good to Know
page.
Posted by Sabine Frank, Media Literacy Counsel, Berlin
Protecting children from sexual abuse
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Last week 348 people were arrested in Canada – and 386 young kids rescued – in one of the largest child sex investigations ever seen. It defies belief that anyone would sexually abuse children, especially teachers and doctors entrusted with their care.
But this awful case highlights the depths to which humanity can sink.
And while society will never wholly eliminate such depravity, we should do everything in our power to protect children from harm. That's why internet companies like Google and Microsoft have been working with law enforcement for years to stop paedophiles sharing illegal pictures on the web. We actively remove child sexual abuse imagery from our services and immediately report abuse to the authorities. This evidence is regularly used to prosecute and convict criminals.
But as the UK Prime Minister David Cameron said in a speech this summer, there's always more that can be done. We've listened, and in the last three months put more than 200 people to work developing new, state-of-the-art technology to tackle the problem.
Cleaning up search:
We've fine tuned Google Search to prevent links to child sexual abuse material from appearing in our results. While no algorithm is perfect – and Google cannot prevent paedophiles adding new images to the web – these changes have cleaned up the results for over 100,000 queries that might be related to the sexual abuse of kids. As important, we will soon roll out these changes in more than 150 languages, so the impact will be truly global.
Deterrence:
We're now showing warnings – from both Google and charities – at the top of our search results for more than 13,000 queries. These alerts make clear that child sexual abuse is illegal and offer advice on where to get help.
Detection and removal:
There's no quick technical fix when it comes to detecting child sexual abuse imagery. This is because computers can't reliably distinguish between innocent pictures of kids at bathtime and genuine abuse. So we always need to have a person review the images. Once that is done – and we know the pictures are illegal – each image is given a unique digital fingerprint. Microsoft deserves a lot of credit for developing and sharing its picture detection technology. But paedophiles are increasingly filming their crimes. So our engineers at YouTube have created a new technology to identify these videos. We're already testing it at Google, and in the new year we hope to make it available to other internet companies and child safety organisations.
Technical expertise:
There are many organisations working to fight the sexual exploitation of kids online – and we want to ensure they have the best technical support. So Google plans to second computer engineers to both the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) here in Britain and the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). We also plan to fund internships for other engineers at these organisations. This will help the IWF and NCMEC stay one step ahead.
The sexual abuse of children is a global challenge, and success depends on everyone working together – law enforcement, internet companies and charities. We welcome the lead taken by the British Government, and hope that the technologies developed (and shared) by our industry will make a real difference in the fight against this terrible crime.
Posted by Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman
Playing for online safety in Russia
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Although educational topics such as child safety and digital literacy may appear to be studious, virtuous but perhaps even a little dull, we’re working hard to make them fun and interactive.
Our new
Russian digital literacy project
, developed with Moscow State University’s Department of Psychology, the Foundation for Internet Development, and the Russian Institute for Education Development of the Ministry of Education, puts teens in the futuristic world of an
Internet laboratory
inhabited by amiable robots. The robots give out helpful advice on how to tell facts from lies on the web, what copyright online is, what information should and should not be shared about yourself and others, and how to protect your data from fraudsters and phishing. At the end of their journey, students complete a
test
that evaluates their digital literacy skills and awards Google certificates. Those who score the most points gain the status of ‘Internet Legend’.
The Russian program is only one of efforts across the region to promote online child safety. In Germany, we have created
Juki
, combining video community, interactive lessons, an encyclopedia, and an animation studio, all designed with child safety in mind. In Israel, our
Web Rangers
transform traditional scouting.
We believe such educational efforts represent the best ways to increase online safety as many risks teens face online, such as bullying, are difficult if not impossible to combat through regulation or filtering technologies. This was also proven by the results of the first ever
Russian study
which measured the level of digital literacy skills of Russian school children aged 12-17. Key findings include:
75% of kids learnt to use Internet on their own, without help from school or parents;
55% of Russian kids agree to meet online strangers in real life without even letting grownups know (compared to the EU's
9% average
);
both teens and parents expressed strong willingness to receive additional training on online safety and hope schools would help to provide necessary literacy programmes; fewer than 20% of parents believe legislation will help keep their children safe online, despite the Russian Law on Protecting Children from Harmful Information which entered force in November 2012; parents claimed digital literacy programs and education are a key to family safety on the Internet.
Russian children have fun studying web safety
Creating a code of conduct for web surfing
At the same time, we recognize the need for companies to step up on protecting children. Our project in Russia arms
teachers
with a textbook and interactive exercises kit for the classroom. It gives useful tips for teachers and parents on how to turn on safety tools on Google Search, YouTube and Android based on the
Good to Know
educational portal, and includes advice from educators and psychologists on how to explain key online safety rules to teenagers through case studies, games and
videos
.
Teachers in Moscow and several other Russian regions have already received training through this programme and are now actively using it in their schools. One of the exercises encourages kids to create their own code of conduct on the web, then discuss and share their experiences with teachers and fellow students. We look forward to seeing the program spread in schools throughout the country.
Posted by Ksenia Karyakina, Senior Policy Analyst, Russia
A few easy tools the whole family will love
Thursday, July 11, 2013
This summer we’re
posting regularly
with privacy and security tips. Knowing how to stay safe and secure online is important, which is why we created our Good to Know site with advice and tips for safe and savvy Internet use.
-Ed.
Summer is here, and with kids out of school it is a great time for families to explore the web together—from learning what makes fireflies glow to playing online games together. But while there is a lot of entertaining, educational content online, there are also materials I’d rather not see when I’m surfing the web with my family. Google has built a number of tools that parents can use to help keep content they would rather not see from popping up on the family computer. It takes less than five minutes to turn them on, so follow the steps below to help make your search results more family-friendly this summer.
1. Turn on SafeSearch in Google Search
Turning on
SafeSearch
is an easy way to help you hide images, search results and videos intended just for adults. It’s especially helpful if you’re concerned about the content that might pop up on your family computer, and it’s easy to turn on. Just visit the Google
Search Settings page
, go to the "SafeSearch filters" section, and check the box to filter mature content from Google Search result pages. These preferences will apply for any searches done using that browser on your computer. If you have multiple browsers on your family computer, you might want to turn SafeSearch on for each one.
You can turn SafeSearch on or off from the
Search Settings page
2. Save and lock your preferences
Once you’ve set your preferences, make sure to click the Save button at the bottom of the page. And if you're signed in to your Google Account, you can also lock the SafeSearch filter so others can’t change your preferences—just click “Lock SafeSearch.” Now the setting is protected with your Google Account password. While no filter is 100 percent perfect, with SafeSearch on you can feel more confident browsing the web with your family.
3. Turn on YouTube Safety Mode
YouTube Safety Mode
helps you and your family avoid videos that might be OK with our
Community Guidelines
, but you might not want popping up on your family computer. Turning on Safety Mode in YouTube takes just one step. Scroll down to the bottom of any YouTube page and click on the button that says “Safety” at the bottom of the page—now you can choose your preferences for Safety Mode.
Click the button that says “Safety” at the bottom of any YouTube page, and then choose your preferences
4. Lock your Safety Mode preferences
Just like with Safe Search, you can also log in with your Google Account and
lock YouTube Safety Mode
on each one of your computer’s browsers. It will filter videos with mature content, so they won’t show up in video search results, related videos, playlists, shows or films. YouTube Safety Mode will also help hide objectionable comments.
5. Turn on SafeSearch on mobile
SafeSearch is available on your phone or other mobile device, as well as the web. You can turn on SafeSearch for Google on your mobile device by opening your phone’s browser and visiting
google.com/preferences
. Scroll to the SafeSearch Filters section to select what level of filtering you would like to enable. Be sure to tap “Save Preferences” after you’ve made your selection.
To enable SafeSearch on YouTube’s mobile app, first open your settings, then press “Search.” From there, select “SafeSearch Filtering” and select moderate or strict filtering.
Helping your family have a positive and safe experience with Google is important to you, and it’s important to us, too. That’s why we’ve partnered with parents and experts on free and easy to use tools and resources to help your family stay safe and secure when browsing online. If you’re interested in even more of our tools and tips, please see our
Good to Know
site, and stay tuned for more security tips throughout the summer.
Posted by Matthias Heiler, Staff Software Engineer
Promoting a Safe Web in Brussels - and throughout Europe
Thursday, June 6, 2013
As a mum of two energetic and curious kids, I love to see how the Internet helps them learn, share and be entertained. Like any parent, I also understand how the Internet can become an overwhelming place and that, as in real life, includes bad actors.
That’s why I work at Google to help parents and children surf safely. My job is to mobilize support for parents, teachers, and non-profit organizations to promote child safety through fun and innovative ways - from theater performances in Greece to animation contests in Germany.
The projects, I’m happy to say, are attracting attention at the highest levels of the European Union. This week, I participated in a meeting of the
Better Internet for Kids Coalition in Brussels
, an initiative launched by
European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes
. Our Senior Vice President Rachel Whetstone explained, via video, how we build safety tools such as
SafeSearch
and
YouTube Safety Mode
.
I’m always on the lookout for creative ways to spread the safety message. In Greece, the local
Saferinternet.gr
coalition has produced a play called “The Internet Farm.” After the performances, children, teachers and parents participate in safety workshops. Take a look:
In Germany, we have partnered with the biggest festival of German-language children’s media
Golden Sparrow
, supporting a new online prize promoting child safety. This year’s winner, recently announced is
Kindernetz
. Our
YouTube 361° Respect
campaign against racism, discrimination and bullying recently had its grand finale featuring the pop band “Glasperlenspiel.”
We look forward to continuing our work with Vice President Neelie Kroes in Brussels - and parents and children throughout the European Union.
Posted by Sabine Frank, Public Policy & Gov't Relations Counsel, Media Literacy, Berlin
Fostering online child safety in Germany
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Children love the web. Parents want to make sure their children surf safely. Enter a new online platform launched yesterday -
juki
.
Juki combines a video community, interactive lessons, an encyclopedia, and an animation studio, all designed with child safety in mind. It invites children from eight to 12-years-old to explore and participate. They can watch videos contributed by other kids and create and upload their own videos. The animation studio allows children to create their own animated short films. Children learn how to safely navigate the web, how to be creative while still taking care of copyright, and enjoy interactive lessons with quiz and games.
Juki is the latest initiative supported by Google in Germany to promote child safety and positive content for kids on the web. We helped the child-friendly search-engine
fragFINN
since its 2007 launch.
The juki project is part of the German government’s initiative
Ein Netz für Kinder
(A Net for Children) and is supported by the Federal Ministry for Families and Youth and the Federal Ministry Culture and Media. Other partners include the German child welfare association
DKHW
, and voluntary self-regulation organisation`s
FSF
and
FSM
.
The new platform builds in strong safety controls. Parents get involved in the registration process and are required to activate the accounts for their kids. We hope this will encourage both parents and kids to discuss and share online activities, while exploring, creating and learning on the web.
Posted by Sabine Frank, Policy Counsel, Germany
Safe ducks! Donald and Daisy speak up for cybersafety
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Please be careful when you are trying to impress Daisy Duck. Not everybody is who they seem to be. If you give away your password, then you can end up with someone stealing your rich uncle's fortune!
Does this sound strange? Well, it makes perfect sense if you read a recent
special edition
of the Donald Duck magazine in Norway focused on online safety. We recently teamed up with industry associations and public and private partners to produce the magazine. More than 300,000 copies were distributed to Norwegian kindergartens.
Kids growing up in this digital age use the Internet for pretty much everything; entertainment, communication, education and when they get that far; new technologies will play an important role in their work. Never has a generation needed digital guidance as the one growing up now. And we were thinking: who would be a better digital guide for kids than Donald Duck?
In the book, Donald gets himself into trouble. He is guarding his uncle’s fortune with the help of a gigantic robot but trying as always to charm Daisy Duck - this time on the Internet. An unsuspecting Donald is lured into downloading a virus and giving away his password to Magica de Spell on “Duckbook”. No surprise: she takes control of the robot and the fortune.
However, all ends well, Donald even gets a prize for his digital skills and hopefully Donald and the tips and tricks in the magazine helps kids to safely enjoy the benefits of the Internet.
Posted by Martin Ruby, Public Policy, Copenhagen
Promoting tolerance on YouTube in Germany
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The Internet often is criticized for allowing violent, intolerant views to be heard, but it also can be used to teach tolerance. In just one example, we recently launched a campaign in Germany called
361° Respekt
, an online video competition in Germany that asks students 13 years old or over to create and upload YouTube videos that show what tolerance means to them.
YouTube long has promoted safety and respect on its site. Our
Safety Center
features tips, tools and advice for users, parents and educators. Viewers are encouraged to report inappropriate content by
flagging videos
that they believe are not in line with our
Community Guidelines
or that should be
age-restricted
. In addition to flagging, channels and/or comments can be reported using our
Help and Safety Tool
and last year we launched the
YouTube Digital Citizenship Curriculu
m designed for educators and students.
Many new partners have joined us in promoting this message through 361° Respekt. They range from international organizations such as
Unesco
, to youth groups such as
Jugendschutz.net
and the health insurer
Techniker Krankenkasse.
Dr. Kristina Schröder
, the Federal Minister for Youth and Family Affairs, is serving as patron for the project and posted a video on her YouTube Channel in support.
A jury will now be assembled and choose a winner at the beginning of April. The project will continue with the creation of a 361° news platform. It will publicise and report on initiatives in Germany designed to foster tolerance and respect.
Posted by Mounira Latrache, Communications and Public Affairs, Hamburg
Supporting innovative ways to protect kids online
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Have you got a great product, project or prototype that helps children and parents get the most out of the internet, whilst staying safe? Want to demo it to an audience of parents, children, celebrities and journalists?
If so, take this opportunity to win a resident membership to Europe's most exciting tech startup hub, Google’s
Campus
in London by entering the
Interactivism: Think Kids
contest. Campus is designed to support the UK’s burgeoning web entrepreneurs, offering seven floors of flexible work spaces, free high speed internet and all the support you need to fuel your idea. In addition, residents get access to mentoring programmes, speaker series, networking events and more.
NSPCC
,
FutureGov
and
Coadec
, along with Google, are supporting this exciting opportunity. The deadline for submissions is
9pm on Wednesday 14th November 2012
. Winners will be selected to attend the Interactivism pitch day at Campus on
December 6th
.
Find out more and submit your idea on the
Simpl Challenge page
.
Posted by Naomi Gummer, Senior Policy Analyst, Google UK
Forging a coalition to protect children
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Across Europe, NGOs, Governments and industry are working together to make the internet a safer place for kids. Together we are raising awareness of the key challenges and building innovative tools to help ensure that parents have control over the content that they - and their families - see online. Signs of our progress were visible when 25 child safety organisations from across 14 European countries recently visited our London office for Google’s first ever European Youth and Tech Summit.
The day’s agenda ranged from product deep-dives, such as a detailed look at YouTube’s reporting mechanisms, to practical tips on how Google can help NGOs improve their online presence. We examined Google’s work in education such as
YouTube for Schools
and the
YouTube Curriculum.
NGOs informed about innovative and inspiring new projects, including
Net Ecoute
and Second Friend, and leading experts such as Janice Richardson (
In Safe
) and Dave Miles (
FOSI
) shared their insights.
We know there’s no easy solution to the question of child safety. All of us are committed to strengthening our safety tools and educational resources. The only chance of reaching our common goal - a safer internet for all - is if we work together. With initiatives such as this Summit, Google is committed to playing our part
Posted by Naomi Gummer, Policy Analyst
Boosting online child safety in Europe
Friday, September 28, 2012
Just as children need to know how to safely cross the street, they need to learn how to safely surf the web. I just finished a trip in Europe, which underlined the emergence of an inspiring movement bringing together NGOs, governments and private business to raise awareness of online safety and security tools.
The European Commission has been working closely with the
CEO Coalition
on safety solutions and
European Commissioner Neelie Kroe
s has endorsed the project. In Brussels, I participated in the working group focused on providing tools to help parents understand content, sharing best practices taken from YouTube and Google Play.
Across the Channel in London, I attended Vodafone's launch of their brilliant
Digital Parenting magazine
. Chock full of how-tos and expert views from kids and PhDs, the magazine is a fun and informative read. (Tip: use an article as a conversation starter during a school ride or at dinner.)
Our Google UK office hosted the
Family Online Safety Institute’s
roundtable on transatlantic trends in child safety and global implications. The Safety Institute brought together a room full of industry representatives from both sides of the Atlantic to share experiences, set out key priorities, and demonstrate best practices. I heard about campaigns like
AT&T’s “It Can Wait”
and shared our own experiences with
Good to Know
and the new
YouTube child safety curriculum
. We lobbed questions at each other -- how do we make these resources relevant and fun? What can we improve? How can we get youth involved?
After attending three events, it’s clear that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to something as intricate and personal as child safety. As technology forecaster
Paul Saffo
said, “never mistake a clear view for a short distance.” But that gap is closing -- we are coming together to find unique ways to build a better environment for our users. It is heartening to see this level of passion and dedication.
Posted by Katharine Wang, Policy Analyst
Hack4Kids winners pick up prizes in Parliament
Friday, June 22, 2012
After 30 hours of intense coding - and personal visits from
Vice President Neelie Kroes
and journalist and blogger
Cory Doctorow
- it was time for the 37 hackers of 11 nationalities who took part in
Hack4Kids
to find out who would win the 5000 euro first prize awards.
In the Child Safety Track, the jury awarded:
First Prize: to
Team Bodoques
(Spain/Italy) with their eyeTime Tool informing kids and parents about the duration of their online session.
Second Prize: to
Team Soe
(Germany/Sweden/Cambodja) with their SecondFriend chat app allowing kids to chat with counselors from helplines in an easy, intuitive and privacy-friendly manner.
Third Prize: to
Team Milktooth
(Italy), with their Milktooth filter activated by the presence of the parents’ phone (by bluetooth) and filters of content that are picture/ad specific so that kids and parents watching the same website see customised pages.
In the Child Creativity track, the jury awarded:
First Prize: to
Team Water
(Finland), with their Waterbear tool to make coding for kids easier, so that they not only use digital products and services - but also understand them and learn how make them!
Second Prize: to
Gianluca Cancelmi
(Italy), with his semantic WikiQuiz including social media aspects.
Third Prize: to
Team LeGarage
(France), with their Kwizzle space invader quiz.
MEPs
Sabine Verheyen
,
Róża Maria Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein
,
Sean Kelly
and
Petru Luhan
awarded the prizes at a special ceremony in the European Parliament.
The next step for all the sponsors (Google, Orange, Vodafone, Facebook) is to work with the coders to see if we can turn their ideas into real tools that can be used to make the web a better - and more creative - place for children and families.
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Counsel
Hacking for child safety online
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Fri June 22, 16:00, correction made in final paragraph, names of MEPs added.
The
EUhackathon
is back in Brussels - and this time, it’s about online child safety.
A year ago, we hosted an inaugural EU
Hack4Transparency
, bringing together crack coders from all over the world with the goal increasing transparency on the Internet. Today and tomorrow, programmers are at the Google Brussels office for 30 hours of continuous coding.
Entries
this year come from 11 countries: France, the UK, Romania, Poland, Finland, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Sweden and even Cambodia.
The new hackathon is part of the European Commission’s
Better Internet for Kids
initiative. Five civil society organisations: eSkills, Family Online Safety Institute, European Schoolnet, eNACSO and Missing Children Europe, are lending their support. Corporate contributors include Facebook, Orange and Vodafone, all of whom have dispatched engineers are to assist.
The coder’s task is to develop the best tools, websites or applications that will enhance children’s safety and creativity online. Our goal is to raise awareness of child safety and online creativity - and generate innovative ideas and solutions. European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes is a keen supporter.
Children are central to this latest EUhackathon and are being given the opportunity to participate in the competition. Our youngest hacker is 13 years old! A total of 25 teenagers from the European schools in Brussels, aged between 12 and 15, will assist, participate and get first hand experience of computer coding.
These children and their teachers - ultimately, the people who will use the tools created during the hackathon - will get to vote for their favourite entries, and their opinions will be taken into account by the
jury
in their deliberations. On 16:15 on 21st June, MEPs Sabine Verheyen, Róża Maria Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein, Sean Kelly and Petru Luhan will hand out EUR 5,000 prizes to the first prize-winning teams at an award ceremony in the European Parliament.
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Manager, Google Brussels
Partnering with Missing Children Europe
Friday, May 25, 2012
Missing Children Europe
and its member organisations do vital work finding missing or sexually exploited children - and supporting their families in time of crisis with emotional, social and legal help via the European
116000 telephone hotline
.
Google has been
working with the group for a while
and we’re pleased to report that the first part of our collaboration with them is now live, in time for International Missing Children’s Day, today. Thanks to
Google technology
embedded in their website, it’s now possible to search for publicly available information across all MCE member websites at the same time.
The European Commission is hosting a
conference
next week in Brussels to raise awareness about the vital work of the European 116000 Missing Children hotline. If children go missing, relatives can call the hotline and speak with specialists. Today, Missing Children Europe launched a promotional film short called “Futures”, which will run on TV, in cinemas and on YouTube:
These are great examples of how technology can help to make both the online and offline worlds a better place for children, in line with our commitments we made when we signed up to the Commission's
Better Internet for Kids
coalition. We’ll continue working with Missing Children Europe and its members in coming months to help them share information and work together more effectively using our technology.
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Counsel
Compete in the EUhackathon
Monday, March 19, 2012
Have you ever had an amazing idea for improving the experience of children on the Internet? Or perhaps you’ve wondered why a tool or platform for harnessing the limitless creativity of young people didn’t already exist?
Then you should apply to participate in this year’s
EUhackatho
n. The Hack4Kids event will be the second
hackathon
organised with the European Union institutions in Brussels and will take place on June 20 and 21, 2012 in Brussels.
Developers are invited to apply in one of two tracks: Child Safety or Child Creativity. The Child Safety Track focuses on building or improving tools that allow children, their parents and teachers enjoy a better Internet experience. Areas for focus include improved reporting mechanisms around cyberbullying, age verification tools and facilitating responsible web surfing.
The Child Creativity Track invites coders to create a tool or platform that enables children to create new online content such as a website, game, or video to be shared. Our ultimate goal is to unlock young people’s creativity.
Last year’s event
was a major success with hackers from across Europe developing tools to help measure network speeds and to improve global transparency tracking. You can check out last year’s winners of the transparency track’s game,
Beat the Censor
and
Internet Performance Analysis
.
Applications
are open until 16 April 2012 at noon CET. Good luck!
Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Manager, Brussels
Israeli Web-Rangers promote online safety
Monday, January 9, 2012
Rangers traditionally guard parks and other areas of natural beauty. In Israel, some modern day rangers - call them Web-Rangers - aim instead to keep the Internet safe. Since last July when Google Israel launched its
Family Safety Centre
, we have encouraged some 200 Israeli teenage Web-Rangers between the age of 15 and 18 to promote online child protection.
The results have been remarkable. More than 80 innovative and creative social campaigns have been launched, ranging from educational videos to tv-style quiz shows. Some Web-Rangers produced creative videos and posted them on a dedicated
YouTube channel
. Others have cooperated with schools, youth movements, and local municipalities to hold seminars for teenagers about online safety.
Our “Web-Rangers” project is run in partnership with two NGOs working for online safety, the
Israel Internet Association
and
Eran
. All the Web-Rangers also have participated in seminars held at Google Israel offices. These included lectures by Google representatives and our partners on digital citizenship, free speech on the net, Google online safety tools and YouTube content policies.
We recently held the graduation for our inaugural Web-Rangers "class." The Israel Ministry of Education’s Head of the Online Child Safety Division participated. She invited the Web-Rangers to take part in the Ministry’s “National Safe Internet Day” and present their projects in schools around the country.
While the Web Rangers started as a Google initiative, the young adults brought the project to life, developed it, and made it their own. The two Web-Rangers who presented the best work, Elad Yam and Yosi Klein, (both from 11th grade) will soon travel to Google’s offices in London to present their work. We look forward to continuing to learn from these creative teenagers about how to create a safe Internet.
Posted by Doron Avni, Policy Manager, Israel
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