Safenet II
PROTEGELES, is a not for profit association that arose as an organisation in 2002, although its Hotline for reporting child pornography and other Internet illegal content has been operating since 2001.
PROTEGELES main objective is to make Internet a safer place for children as well as to promote among them a positive and safer use of the other ICT.
Aiming at this goal, PROTEGELES develops its activities mainly in two fields:
- Fighting against child pornography and other illegal content on Internet, acting as a hotline through its website www.protegeles.com, where the Spanish hotline can be found.
- Raising awareness on a safe use of Internet among children by organising awareness campaigns addressed to children, educators and parents as well as communication and informative campaigns with a big impact in the media and the general public.
On the other hand, PROTEGELES is the Spanish awareness node within the INSAFE European network. Both PROTEGELES, as the Spanish awareness node, and the INSAFE European network are directly promoted and co-financed by the European Commission within the frame of the Safer Internet Plus Programme. (http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/index_en.htm).
The financed project includes all PROTEGELES activities as the Spanish awareness node within the INSAFE network and it has been named SAFENET II [SIP-2005-AN-038003-SAFENET II].
PROTEGELES has been acting as the awareness node since 2004. On that year, PROTEGELES and Telefónica created the SAFENET Project, which was partly financed by the European Commission in the frame of the Safer Internet Action Plan (SIAP).
SAFENET II continues SAFENET and it will include the following actions:
- Launching informative campaigns all around the Spanish territory, mainly in schools and giving priority to children but also targeting other public like educators and parents.
- Editing educative materials that will be useful both for the campaigns, not only in schools but all kind of campaigns. (For instance our periodical publication Conéctate)
- Carrying out detailed studies about Spanish children’s habits on Internet and other ICT in order to inform and make aware the general public, and more specifically parents and educators, of the detected potentially dangerous situations.
- Launching specially designed campaigns for a relatively small target public on some specific issues, such as a safer use of Internet, mobile phones or videogames.
- Launching informative campaigns for a very specific public, like educators.
- Preparing and actively participating in the organisation of big events and educative workshops.
- Organising and promoting, together with the rest of the INSAFE network awareness nodes, the Safer Internet Day.
- Keeping a permanent presence on the media as to keep the Spanish society aware and informed about children’s safety on the ICT, including Internet.
- Designing and publishing promotional materials and merchandising products of the campaigns.
- Creating and designing specialized theme Web sites, like: about videogames (www.videojuegos.es), Friendly Cybercenter campaign (www.cibercentroamigo.com), a page supporting the campaign on schools (www.exprimelared.com), and two pages with useful information for parents and educators (www.enlaredprotegete.com and www.ciberfamilias.com).
- Creation and design of web sites suitable and safe for children (www.portaldelmenor.es)
- There are web sites promoting dangerous and even life-threatening behaviours and life styles to which children are particularly vulnerable. In order to thwart the negative effects of these pages, PROTEGELES has created ant it is nowadays running two helplines where children suffering from school bullying (www.acosoescolar.info) or Eating Disorders (www.anaymia.com, www.anaymia.eu and www.masqueunaimagen.com) can get professional help online.
Within the frame of the Safenet II Project, co-financed by the European Commission, PROTEGELES has the following goals:
- To be the Spanish awareness node for a safer use of Internet and other ICT.
- To conceive and carry out a preventive and awareness campaign which will be both comprehensive and convincing and that will use all necessary means to get to be a great success. This is actually the case of the campaign that PROTEGELES is carrying out in Spanish schools.
- To establish and keep good relations with the relevant actors in the Internet safety field such as the law enforcement bodies, media groups and companies, ISP (Internet Services Providers), the Internet-related industry and Parent-Teachers associations.
- To contribute with its actions to spread digital literacy.
- To inform Internet users about the existence and benefits of content-control software and services to limit children’s access to harmful content, thus allowing parental control.
- To promote and broadcast PROTEGELES’ hotline for reporting child pornography and Internet illegal content.
- To actively cooperate with the INSAFE European network and with all the other national awareness nodes by exchanging information, knowledge and experiences and by taking part in the INSAFE’s forum and meetings. PROTEGELES will give the Project a European dimension, but still respecting the local culture and peculiarities of Spain.
HISTORY
In October 2004, PROTEGELES, as coordinator of the SAFENET Project and Terra Networks, S.A. as its partner, signed a contract with the European Commission [SIAP2003AN03SAFENET/28976] in behalf of which, PROTEGELES became the Spanish awareness node for a safer use of Internet and other ICT and joined the European INSAFE network.
SAFENET Project went on from November 1 2004 till October 31 2006. When Terra Networks, S.A. merged with Telefónica, S.A, then, the resulting company became PROTEGELES’ partner for the SAFENET Project.
