Today - Personal Data Protection Day, the Albanian Data Protection Commissioner presented the "Play and Learn - Happy Onlife" initiative. In the premises of the 9-year school "Kosova" an informative activity took place  with the presence of students and teachers from several schools of Tirana.

The Commissioner, Mr Besnik Dervishi, praised the importance of this date as to educating the young generation with the knowledge on guarateeing privacy and the protection of personal data, especially when navigating online.

The event welcomed the guests of honor, Mrs Vasilika Hysi, Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Mr Olsi Dekovi, the Head of the Council of Europe Office, Mr Claudio Pala, representative of the OSCE Presence and Mr Aurelian Juliard, representative of the European Union Delegation.

In his speech, Mr Dekovi emphasized the importance of such educational and inclusive activities with children and youngsters that have an important impact not only for them but also for their families in the digital age. He further expressed confidence that the Albanian authorities will take the appropriate measures for signing the moderate version of the Council of Europe Convention 108, which will increase the safeguards and data protection mechanisms in the Council of Europe's space.

Pupils from each of the schools participating in this initiative, together with the guests, conducted a demonstration of the game, which was prepared by the European Union's Joint Research Center for the age group 8-14. The game "Happy Onlife" aims at raising awareness and enhancing knowledge for effective protection from negative phenomena such as bullying, unwanted online contacts or identity theft, especially on social networks. From recent studies, both in Albania and in the world, it turns out that young people are more and more users of digital technologies and are therefore more exposed to online threats.

Since 2006, the Council of Europe launched a Data Protection Day to be celebrated each year on 28 January.