News Overview 2024

The new school year has already started in some federal states. In others, it will start soon. klicksafe offers an overview of materials that teachers can use to bring media literacy into the classroom. This includes three brand-new publications on age-appropriate and safe media use, protection against digital sexual violence and how to deal confidently with fakes, scams and cybercrime.

Hooray, school's starting! The start of school marks the beginning of a new phase for children and parents. Media consumption is also playing an increasingly important role in the everyday lives of primary school children. Just as school and parents accompany the first steps in school life, the first steps in dealing with online media and services should also be discovered together. In our new back-to-school flyer "Media-safe at school", we provide important tips and advice to help children starting school stay safe online. The flyer is now available to order from us in German, Arabic, Russian and Turkish.

Listening to music, playing games or watching videos on the go - digital media are part of everyday life for most children and young people in Germany. 92% of 6 to 18-year-olds regularly use the internet and 85% use their smartphone at least occasionally, with an average usage time of just over two hours a day. These findings come from a representative study by the digital association Bitkom, in which over 900 children and young people in Germany were surveyed. klicksafe summarizes the most important results of this study and provides tips on how to use digital media in a regulated manner.

When children and young people are asked to name their favorite video games, one name cannot be missing: Fortnite. Since its release in 2017, the battle royale shooter has been one of the most successful video game titles - especially among children. Many parents are put off by the brutal game content and wonder whether Fortnite is suitable for their children. klicksafe provides the most important information at a glance.

Platforms such as TikTok or Instagram automatically check posts and comments that are posted in the background. This is to ensure that no content that violates the platform guidelines is visible. In order to circumvent these filters, a special language has been developed in recent years: Algospeak. We explain what Algospeak is and which coded terms and emojis you should pay particular attention to.

The initiative "SCHAU HIN! What your child does with media." has published its first game. "Sherlock Phones" is an online game and is aimed at parents and their children aged 7 to 13. Children and adults form a team and go on adventures together in the digital world. The game teaches knowledge about safe smartphone use in a fun way.

The renewed escalation in the conflict between Hamas and Israel is also making waves online, particularly on social media. Young people are being confronted with anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hatred. Drastic images and videos of both the massacres by Hamas and Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip are also being disseminated. The new report by jugendschutz.net shows that social media services have reacted to this with commitment, but unfortunately also inconsistently by hiding and deleting content.

Many parents want an app that makes their child's smartphone safe and limits the time it can be used. This type of parental control program also exists. The offers range from safety settings that are integrated into the operating systems to apps from private manufacturers. klicksafe took a closer look at the free offers for the two major operating systems Android and iOS. And we tried out a paid program that was named the test winner by Stiftung Warentest. In our topic area on youth protection programs, you will also find lots of information on how technical youth media protection can be meaningfully integrated into media education.

For many families, June marks the start of the vacation season. Parents often share the wonderful moments with their children at the beach or pool online. Caution is advised here! Children have the right to their own image and privacy. In addition, supposedly harmless images of children can be misused for sexual purposes. We provide tips on what parents need to be aware of and how they can protect their children.

Shocking, gruesome and disgusting images and videos are easily disseminated on the internet. The phenomenon itself is not new. However, there are now more readily available distribution channels for these images. And the risk of being unintentionally confronted with these images has also changed and presumably increased thanks to social media platforms and messenger services. What do adults need to know about this topic and how can they help children and young people?

The European Championship in our own country is currently making the hearts of all soccer fans beat faster. The perfect time to take a look at one of the best-known and most popular video game brands of all time: EA Sports FC. The soccer game formerly known as FIFA is by far one of the most popular games among children. We took a look at the free mobile version for smartphones and show parents of young soccer fans what to look out for.

Every tenth child between the ages of two and five now has their own smartphone. Every fifth child has their own tablet. In addition, subscriptions to pay TV providers or streaming services are available in many households with young children and are also used by the offspring. These are some of the key findings from the miniKIM 2023 study by the Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest (mpfs). This is the fourth time that basic data on media use by children between the ages of two and five in Germany is available.

In the digital space, strangers can easily come into contact with children and young people. Many adults do this in order to sexually harass them and prepare sexual abuse or carry out the abuse directly online. A lot of them. This is shown in a recent report by STRG_F using the example of the video platform Likee. klicksafe provided technical support for a test setup in which two journalists took on the role of underage girls and streamed live in the Likee app. We explain the test setup and provide information on how you can protect children from cybergrooming.

Facebook and Instagram users have been informed that the terms of use will change at the end of June 2024. Specifically, the parent company Meta wants to use users' personal data to train its artificial intelligence. Anyone who does not want this should now object to this by June 26, 2024. klicksafe explains how you can successfully object to the use of your data and whether Facebook and Instagram's approach is legal.

Social networks are a central place of communication on the internet. Photos, videos, music, texts - everything is published. The users themselves are responsible for this. It is therefore important to deal with personal rights and copyright. After all, there is a risk of legal consequences and warnings if laws are violated.