The hour and a half event took place in the EU InfoCentre. The contents of the event agenda were diverse and interesting since the audience consisted of children in the seventh grade.

The event was opened and moderated by Elena Stojanovska from the Directorate for Personal Data Protection. She held a brief presentation on the storage and provision of personal data, with particular emphasis on photos and tagging photos on websites such as Facebook without the consent of the persons on the photos. Examples were shared during the presentation, and the children also shared their own experiences. At the end of this presentation, the most common risks arising from the use of social networks were mentioned and recommendations to users in the form of conclusions were also provided.

During this session, Irina Shumadieva from the Metamorphosis Foundation announced the educational films on several topics in the area of child safety online and the protection of their privacy: online frauds, chat addiction, cyber bullying, videogames addiction and mobile phones abuse. These short films were created in partnership with the Children’s Theatre Centre within the framework of the project Online Privacy Made Easy. After the screening of each film, a brief discussion with the children ensued on each of the topics.

During the break after the 45-minute session, the children had an opportunity to play the games developed within the framework of the OPME project, which will soon be published on the www.bezbednonainternet.org.mk website along with the short films.

The second session began with an interactive exercise with the children’s participation and was aimed at metaphorically presenting the confidence or lack of confidence in people we meet online. A mini-presentation of the www.bezbednonainternet.org.mk website followed, and Violeta Georgievska from the Internet Hotline Provider – Macedonia talked to the children on the following topic: ‘What we may and may not do online’ from an aspect of criminal, punishable offenses.

The event was attended by 47 pupils from two elementary schools in Skopje, Koco Racin and Goce Delchev, accompanied by their teachers.

During the event, children also filled out a short questionnaire about their internet habits.

The results of the mini-survey indicated that 98% of the interviewed children have access to the internet from their homes, and 79% of the children have a computer in their room. Also, 96% of children have their own mobile phone, and 40% of the children use their mobile phones to access the internet. 26% of the children have photographed someone without asking for permission, and 21% of the children agree that it is easier to tell people what they think about them online.

The complete report from the mini-survey along with all the data is available for download in PDF (in Macedonian).

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