Marta is a Helpline.org.pl Coordinator in the Nobody's Children Foundation.

For the last several years, Marta Wojtas has been working in the field of psychological support and interventions for children who are victims of crimes. She has worked for the Nobody's Children Foundation since 2007. She conducted a number of trainings for children and young people on counteracting violence, preventing addictions and developing social skills. She trained professionals (educators, psychologists and police officers) from Poland and abroad in the area of supporting young internet users, who experience threats while using new technologies. She is the author of articles addressing the issue of children’s internet safety. In 2003-2006, she worked as an academic teacher at Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce. In 2004-2007 she also provided psychological and pedagogical counselling. She is a psychologist, a graduate of the University of Łódź. She obtained teaching qualification and completed cross-cultural communication programme at the Tampere University in Finland.

Plenary session: Mechanisms of grooming. A new online grooming legislation awareness campaign

Counteracting the problem is one of the priorities of the online safety of children policy all over the world. Apart from education and support, a very important role here is played by appropriate legal regulations and efficient Police initiatives targeting those who seduce children on the internet.

In Poland, the problem of internet child grooming was taken up already in 2004 by the Nobody’s Children Foundation (NCF), which organized a nationwide campaign "Child on the Web". The campaign’s motto „You never know who is on the other side” drew attention to the threats arising from contacts with strangers on the internet. As part of the Saferinternet.pl programme initiated in 2005, NCF together with the Research and Academic Computer Network (NASK), as well as a number of partners, has been conducting comprehensive educational activities aimed at increasing the safety of children on the internet. These activities focus particularly on the threats connected with sexual harassment of children. Since 2007, NCF together with the Orange Foundation has been running the Helpline.org.pl (800 100 100) project, where consultants provide support for children, parents and professionals in situations where there is a suspected online child grooming.

During her speech, Marta Wojtas from NCF will present an outline of the problem of sexual harassment of children with the use of modern technologies. The speech will be based on the experience gained through the Helpline.org.pl campaign and will focus on a particular form of the phenomenon – internet child grooming.

Łukasz Wojtasik – the NCF’s „Child on the Web” campaign coordinator will talk abort new legal regulations that came into effect in Poland on 8 June 2010. These regulations penalize grooming and making sexual offers to children on the internet. Hew will also sum up the „Every move on the internet leaves a trace” campaign aimed at raising awareness about the new regulations.