Every year more and more children use the Internet but often neither children, nor their parents are aware of traditional and new dangers for children existing in the Internet. According to the results of the research held by the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 22% of children occasionally get to adult sites and only in 18% of cases adults control which sites were visited by the child. About 28% of children are ready to send their pictures to the strangers, 17% of children would agree to provide personal information about themselves and their family without any hesitation.

Due to the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine,  new dangers for children appear  because the information environment is being rapidly filled in with the scenes of violence, hate speech and is characterized by incitement to hatred, intolerance and manipulation. This situation poses a special threat to the psychology of children and adolescents, as evidenced by the results of the recently completed research held with the support of the Programme by the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine.

During the press conference, the experts of the Ukrainian Internet Association and the Council of Europe shared domestic and European experience regarding reduction of the impact of such threats. During the conversation they discussed preventive measures, provision of information to users about their rights, creation of special-purpose Internet resources for children.

The Guide to Human Rights for Internet Users adopted by the Recommendation of the Council of Europe in 2014 was presented to the participants. The Guide to Human Rights for Internet Users and its Explanatory Memorandum have been recently translated into Ukrainian. This guide is a tool for Internet users to learn about their human rights online, their possible limitations and available remedies for such limitations. According to this document, the children and young people are entitled to special protection and guidance when using the Internet. Children and young people should be granted special protection from interference with their physical, mental and moral welfare, in particular protection from sexual exploitation and abuse on the Internet and other forms of cybercrime. Children and young people have the right to education to protect themselves from such threats.

During the press conference an online game for children ThroughtheWildWebWoods www.wildwebwoods.org was presented. This game created by the Council of Europe in order to teach children to use the Internet safely.

The speakers  of the the press conference were Tetyana Popova, President of the Board of the Ukrainian Internet Association; Carmen Turk, Expert of the Council of Europe (Estonia); Lyubov Naidyonova, Head of the Laboratory of Mass Communication Psychology and Media Education, Deputy Director for Science of the Institute of Social and Political Psychology of the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of Ukraine; Ellina Shnurko-Tabakova, Head of the Committee for Protection of Human Rights and Freedom of Speech of the Ukrainian Internet Association.

Joint Programme of the Council of Europe and the European Union “Strengthening Information Society in Ukraine" is aimed to strengthen the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms through greater freedom, diversity and pluralism in the media; an open, inclusive, sustainable, people-centred and human rights-based approach to the Internet on the principles of an effective system of protection of individuals with regard to their right to privacy and right to control their personal data. The detailed information about the project - https://www.coe.int/uk/web/kyiv/41.