58 speakers, over 500 participants, guests from 26 countries. The Internet knows no boundaries, as the participants of the 3^rd International Conference on „Keeping children and young people safe online” learned.

For those who could not take part in the Conference in person, a live streaming feed was offered by NASK. Biographical notes and abstracts can be found in conference materials (PDF).

The Conference was held on 29 and 30 September 2009 in the Warsaw’s Marriott Hotel. The event was organized by the Polish Center of the “Safer Internet” Program, established by the Naukowa i Akademicka Sieć Komputerowa (NASK) and the Nobody’s Children Foundation. Klicksafe – a German project devoted to Internet safety, was also involved in the preparations for the Conference, organized within the framework of the European Commission’s “Safer Internet” program. The Orange Foundation was the event’s main partner.

The aim of the Conference was to share with its participants the latest developments concerning education in the field of Internet safety, as well as actions undertaken to counteract illegal Internet content. This year’s edition of the Conference was devoted mainly to the need of providing for the issue of Internet safety in school curricula, the protection of privacy of the youngest Web users, blocking content presenting sexual abuse of children, and preventing the phenomenon of cyber violence. A number of innovative educational initiatives have been presented by the conference organizers, as well as by Polish and foreign organizations.

The meeting was an opportunity to confront international experiences and ideas – their knowledge was shared by both practitioners (e.g. Piotr Kantyka from the nasza-klasa.pl portal) and representatives of institutions concerned with the legal regulations (Rafał Lew-Starowicz from the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Jakub Boratyński from the European Commission). The privacy of young Internet users in the context of marketing mechanisms was discussed by Michel Walrave, PhD, of the Antwerp University, while Michał Serzycki, General Inspector for the Protection of Personal data touched upon the issue of protecting the privacy of the youngest social portal users.

A discussion on blocking child pornography content on the operator level constituted an important element of this year’s Conference – an entire discussion panel was devoted to this issue, with active participation of telecom operators. The British experience in the field was presented by Zoe Hilton, PhD. The subject of racism and xenophobia on the Internet was the focal point of the session for representatives of the judiciary and law enforcement agencies.

The conference was targeted primarily at the representatives of the educational sector (teachers, tutors), non-governmental organizations, institutions of the judiciary sector, law enforcement agencies, as well as Internet content and service providers. Over five hundred participants of this year’s Conference took part in specialist sessions hosted by renowned experts. Two former editions of the Conference gathered over six hundred professionals from Poland and abroad.

The Conference’s honorary patrons included:

- prof. Barbara Kudrycka – Minister of Science and Higher Education,
- Grzegorz Schetyna – Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior and Administration,
- Marek Michalak – Commissioner for Children’s Rights,
- Michał Serzycki – Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data,
- Andrzej Czuma – Minister of Justice,
- Jolanta Fedak – Minister of Labor and Social Policy,
- Katarzyna Hall – Minister of National Education,
- Elżbieta Radziszewska – Government’s Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment,
- Sławomir Ratajski – Secretary General of the Polish UNESCO Committee,
- gen. insp. Andrzej Matejuk – Chief Police Constable,
- and the Office of Electronic Communications.

Below you will find some of presentations:

Day 1                  Thuesday                  29 September 2009                 9.00-17.00