News Overview 2020

Since yesterday, Germany has been in a "lockdown light," which means that children and young people are also spending more time at home again. Unlike in spring, nature is not inviting children to go on long bike rides or walks at the moment, so the media will probably play an even more important role as a leisure activity. This makes it all the more important for parents to provide their children with age-appropriate activities. The 2020 Pedagogical Media Award today honored outstanding digital offerings for children and young people.

(Cyber)bullying can become a serious burden for children and young people. Often, those affected do not manage to free themselves from such a psychologically stressful situation without help. Especially in the context of schools, the question therefore often arises as to how professionals can deal with bullying, both preventively and actively, when bullying occurs. The klicksafe teacher manual "What to do in case of (cyber)bullying?" offers basic information, suggestions for practice and introduces systemic conflict management. In November and December 2020, klicksafe and its co-authors, Thomas Grüner and Jürgen Schmidt, will each offer a module on the topic of bullying based on the manual as a full-day online training course.

In recent months, there have been more reports of minors spreading images of child abuse via messenger services. The Federal and State Police Crime Prevention is actively tackling the issue with the new campaign "Child Pornography - Report, Don't Forward". The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office provides current figures on underage pornography distributors, which can provide impetus for prevention work with children and young people.

The teaching material "App+on - Sicher, kritisch und fair im Netz" (Safe, critical and fair online) is aimed at students in fifth grade and above and comprises ten learning units. The teaching units build on ten selected videos from the media education ZDFtivi web magazine "App+on". Topics include false ideals of beauty on Instagram, the dangers of fake news, or the repetition of gender stereotypes in online profiles. The material is now available digitally and as a print version from klicksafe.

Today, opinions are also increasingly formed with and in digital media. This is supported by the fact that the Internet is becoming increasingly important for children at an earlier age. It is therefore reasonable to assume that young people's political opinion-forming increasingly takes place in social media. The JFF - Institute for Media Education has now presented a study that provides an overview of the scientific debate on the topic and identifies questions that are still unanswered.

Under the motto "Me and the Internet - Children's view of the online world", the Seitenstark association invites all children to talk about their experiences with the Internet and to exchange ideas with each other. Since 2015, Children's Sites Day has been celebrated every year on October 21 to draw the attention of children, educators, and teachers to the great variety of child-friendly Internet offerings.

What do students' media use look like in times of the Covid 19 pandemic? What obstacles do they see to homeschooling, and what changes can be observed in device ownership and use compared to previous years? These and other questions are the focus of the current survey from the Youth, Information, Media (JIM) study series, in which 1,200 young people between the ages of 12 and 19 in Germany were interviewed. The JIM Study 2020 will be published at the end of the year. The Medienpädagogische Forschungsverbund Südwest (mpfs) has already presented the first results.

Almost 900 children across Germany tested the games and educational software nominated by a jury of experts. This year, the winners were honored for the first time live on KiKA and on kika.de on October 17. Since 2002, the TOMMI has been awarded every year to outstanding digital games for children from an educational point of view. For the first time, a prize was also awarded in the new "Education" category.

How can young people deal with cyberbullying if they themselves or friends are affected? How do you report insults on social media platforms or in messenger services? And what is the legal situation regarding cyberbullying? These questions are answered by the cyber-bullying first aid app, which was developed by young people from the klicksafe Youth Panel and has recently been made available in a new design and with additional tutorials. In addition to a sticker and a flyer, the new poster "What to do in case of cyber-bullying" is available as of today.

During European Cyber Security Month (ECSM), the member states of the European Union focus on the topic of cyber security for four weeks each year in October. This year, the Federal Office for Information Security, as the coordinating body in Germany, is devoting its attention to so-called "deep fakes," a technical way of spreading fake news and scams. This technology has regularly been in the headlines for several years because the results of these fakes are often surprisingly close to reality.

How long are children allowed to watch TV, play on the computer or surf the Internet? These are questions that repeatedly lead to conflicts between parents and their children. In order to reach a binding agreement, klicksafe and Internet-ABC have developed an online tool for creating a media use agreement. In this way, parents and their children can individually determine which media and content can be used by the children and for how long.

Is my Android app clean or a sneaky data slinger? You can now find out for yourself - on the new "App Check" platform. Online as of today at mobilsicher.de.

Girls and young women who experience digital violence are leaving social media. This is the conclusion of Plan International's World Girls' Report "Free to be online - girls' and young women's experiences of digital violence". According to the report, 58 percent of the girls and young women surveyed experience threats, insults and discrimination on social media. In Germany, the figure is as high as 70 percent. For the report, the child rights organization surveyed more than 14,000 girls and young women aged 15 to 24 - 1,003 of them in Germany.

On October 6 at 3 p.m., a Twitter chat on the topic of "Sexual abuse of children" starts for the first time in Germany. Initiated by jugendschutz.net, klicksafe, together with all cooperation partners, answers questions on Twitter about this highly sensitive and difficult topic.

Action against disinformation is fundamental for the communicative basis of our society