State Secretary in the Ministry of Trade, Tourism, and Telecommunications Tatjana Matić has said that children and the young are in the centre of the polity of the Republic of Serbia for the plan of strengthening the culture of digital safety, since they are the most vulnerable group of digital technology users.
In the press conference on the presentation of the UNICEF Annual Report “The State of the World’s Children 2017: Children in a Digital World”, Ms Matić has underlined that the young have to be ready for the upcoming expansion of the global digital revolution, which makes them a priority in the programmes for development of digital literacy and digital skills.
Making a comment on the report results, presented by the UNICEF Director for Serbia, Michel Saint-Lot, according to which every third child is exposed to sexual and other forms of internet abuse, Ms Matić has said that the Ministry competent for telecommunications has undertaken numerous measures to prevent the escalation of this issue.
“The government has established a legal framework for protection of children in the digital environment, with the adoption of the Regulation for safety of children on the internet and the Strategy of development of information safety. National contact centre for online safety of children was launched based on the Regulation, used for receiving advice and reporting of cases of online abuse of children’s safety. Also, we are conducting numerous education programmes, as well as infrastructural projects for providing free and safe internet in schools, inter alia, for overcoming the digital gap between the young in unequally developed areas”, says Ms Matić.
She has reminded that the representatives of the Contact Centre are organising presentations throughout Serbia about the online protection, and that the citizens, primarily parents, can schedule the visit of the presents in their place or school themselves by using digital platforms
“Internet has become part of our lives. For prevention of its abuse, bans are not fruitful, but education and guidance of the young towards the use of numerous benefit the new technologies provide, and development of digital skills which have become the foundation of many professions”, says Ms Matić.
In the conference in the Press Centre in UNS, State Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technological Development Anamarija Viček and influential vlogger Biljana Stojković also talked.
A video from the conference can be seen here: Deca u digitalnom svetu
