Safe Internet Center and GNR promote digital literacy

Fulfilling its mission to promote safe Internet use and raise awareness of the risks associated with Internet use, the Safe Internet Center - a project coordinated by the FCT - is promoting a joint action with the GNR from May 3 to 9, as part of the national project "Operation Seven Days with the Media". 

The partnership between the Safe Internet Center and the GNR seeks to be an effective aid in preventive action in relation to the deficit of media literacy and citizenship, creating alerts among a vulnerable age group to the need for caution in accessing information that reaches everyone through the use of the internet. 

The youngest audience is the main target of these 283 actions, taking place in schools across the country. Twelve thousand students, from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycles of education, are taking part in sessions held with the support of 507 soldiers from the GNR's Special Programs Sections.

Each action consists of presenting a range of relevant information on online safety, geared to the various age groups, exposing the dangers of the online world and ways of using the Internet safely in the different areas: communication, socialization, responsibility and protection of personal data. 

To complement the information provided in the presentations, information materials will be distributed by the Safe Internet Center (24,000 resources distributed), detailing everything young people need to know about preventing risky behavior when using the Internet, thus promoting safer and more conscious surfing.

The Safe Internet Center project, coordinated by the FCT, also includes the Directorate-General for Education, the Portuguese Sports and Youth Institute and Microsoft as partners.

As a member of GILM - the Informal Media Literacy Group - the FCT, represented by the Department for the Information Society, is one of the entities responsible for identifying and intervening in the field of Media Education, and is thus one of the organizations promoting the "Seven Days with the Media" initiative. Through various activities carried out in public spaces, this operation aims to raise awareness among citizens of the role and place of traditional and new generation media in their daily lives.