News Overview 2022

Violence, extremism, pornography: When young users use popular Internet services, they are quickly exposed to harmful content. Interaction opportunities online also bring with them the risk of becoming victims of bullying or sexual harassment. There are more and more depictions of sexualized violence against minors online. In popular games, so-called dark patterns become a trap for children. However, many operators of popular offers do not take sufficient precautionary measures to protect minors well. This is the conclusion reached by jugendschutz.net in its annual report 2021.

Media Literacy Week starts today for the third time throughout Rhineland-Palatinate. Until July 10, a variety of offers and events on media literacy topics will take place throughout the state. This year klicksafe is again represented with various web seminars. Among other things, we address the topics of cybergrooming and democratic competence in our presentations.

Whether it's picture poses, outfits or trends - influencers are the new stars and dictate what's hot. Hidden advertising messages, distorted representations of reality and problematic content and role models can have a negative influence. How do influencers work and what should parents and guardians keep in mind? We answer these questions on our new topic page. In addition, there is a wide range of materials for parents, teachers and young people on the topic of influencers.

70% of all young people have come into contact with digital violence at some point. Problems such as online bullying and online anger can affect anyone - and are particularly widespread among young people. The Corona pandemic, the lockdown, and homeschooling have also led to children and young people spending significantly more time online. Young children in particular have landed in the digital world completely unprepared. The Kinderschutzbund Frankfurt has reacted to this and founded the "Fachstelle digitale Gewalt und Jugendrecht" - Safe im Recht.

Getting young people excited about scientific topics and promoting networking between scientific institutions and schools - these are the goals of Explore Science. The science experience days in Mannheim will take place from June 22 to 26, 2022, and have been sponsored by the Klaus Tschira Foundation since 2006. The klicksafe youth advisory board is also involved.

The streaming platform Twitch exerts a great fascination on children and young people. For parents, klicksafe offers a new booklet and a checklist that explain how to deal with Twitch.

Always be up to date, don't miss a thing - our lives are increasingly taking place online. The pull of digital offers is getting stronger and stronger and it is becoming more difficult - especially for young people - to consciously switch off. With our new poster "10 tips for digital well-being" and the accompanying poster to fill out yourself, you can help young people find their balance between online and offline activities.

Streaming services are constantly trying to expand their offerings in order to retain users or attract new ones. This can go beyond series and movies, as the example of Netflix shows. As early as November of last year, Netflix published its first games for its subscribers' mobile devices. There are now more than 20 Netflix games, and the number is growing. In our updated guide, we show parents what they should watch out for.

Skin burns, electric shocks, fires in school toilets - time and again, social media challenges encourage children and young people to engage in risky actions and self-harming behavior. On the other hand, there are also fun and harmless contests. In our new topic area, we provide detailed information about the phenomenon of Internet challenges and give tips on how to deal with them.

Today is International Children's Day. On this day, the focus is on children and their special needs and rights. This includes child-friendly, safe surfing spaces. Good children's sites support children in their development and education. But how can you actually recognize a good children's site on the web?

In recent years, hatred, incitement and insults on the Internet have come under greater legal and political scrutiny. Not least because acts of violence such as those in Christchurch, Halle and Hanau cannot be considered without preceding radicalization processes on the Internet. The legal situation in Germany is relatively clear, depending on the criminal offense. A recent experiment by ZDF Magazin Royale shows that there are significant differences in the prosecution of hate on the Internet depending on the federal state.

Last year, more money was earned with mobile games in Germany than ever before. Unfortunately, many of the initially free games are designed so that players spend as much time as possible with them. They see more advertising and spend more money with in-app purchases. For the providers, these manipulative tricks keep the cash registers ringing. For children and young people, they are a big problem.

The Federal Center for Child and Youth Media Protection (BzKJ) has published the 2nd edition of the "Danger Atlas". This offers an up-to-date overview of the media use reality of children and young people and possible online dangers.

The "Data Privacy - Easily Explained" project is expanding its offering in cooperation with klicksafe. Newly available are worksheets that complement 18 short video clips on topics such as data privacy and information security. The new brochure includes a total of eleven worksheets with work instructions and sample solutions. The worksheets can also be downloaded individually for direct processing on the computer. In this way, the topics can be prepared for the classroom in an easily accessible way.

Anyone who wants to move safely and confidently on the Internet should master one thing: digital self-defense. What is behind this term? What tools should we all know? How can we learn media competence - and when should we start?