State Secretary of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Tatjana Marić, in her opening speech at the workshop “Safety of Children Online: how to improve the protection of children online” has praised the organisation of such an event which contributes to the strengthening of the capacity of the administration of the Republic of Serbia and the adoption of examples of good European practice for tackling the global issue of safety of children online.

“Government of the Republic of Serbia has recently adopted the Regulation on Safety and Protection of Children when using the information and communications technologies upon the proposal of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, and the establishment of a single contact centres for safety of children online, envisaged by that regulation, is in progress”, State Secretary has reminded.

She has also mentioned that the Regulation is in line with the Law on the Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, General Protocol of Serbian Government for Protection of Children from Abuse and Neglect, and the 2012 EU Strategy for Better Interest for Children, where, inter alia, there are proposals for establishing the contact centres for protection of children online, which will serve for education, prevention but also reporting the harmful contents.

“We expect the national contact centre in Serbia to start operating by the end of the year, which will be an indicator that our country tackles the actual digital issues and that it already implements the European practice in this field. As for the education, which is vital for safety of children online, we have realised a big campaign, IT caravan, with the message “Smart and safe”, in 15 cities in Serbia, with 5000 primary school pupils participating in the presentations on the advantages and dangers of new technologies. The IT caravan will be realised this year as well, and in the meanwhile we will continue with the systematic support to the introduction of computer science as a compulsory subject in the school curriculum”, Ms Tatjana Matić has said.

The workshop organised by the European Commission and the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of the Republic of Serbia, held on October 13 and 14 in the Hotel “88 rooms” in Belgrade, is a part of the platform of the European Commission for technical assistance and information exchange, TAIEX, supporting public administrations regarding the harmonisation, implementation and application of the EU legislation, and encourages the exchange of the best EU practice, through workshops, expert missions and study visits.