Playing for online safety in Russia

Although educational topics such as child safety and digital literacy may appear to be studious, virtuous but perhaps even a little dull, we’re working hard to make them fun and interactive.

Our new Russian digital literacy project, developed with Moscow State University’s Department of Psychology, the Foundation for Internet Development, and the Russian Institute for Education Development of the Ministry of Education, puts teens in the futuristic world of an Internet laboratory inhabited by amiable robots. The robots give out helpful advice on how to tell facts from lies on the web, what copyright online is, what information should and should not be shared about yourself and others, and how to protect your data from fraudsters and phishing. At the end of their journey, students complete a test that evaluates their digital literacy skills and awards Google certificates. Those who score the most points gain the status of ‘Internet Legend’.



The Russian program is only one of efforts across the region to promote online child safety. In Germany, we have created Juki, combining video community, interactive lessons, an encyclopedia, and an animation studio, all designed with child safety in mind. In Israel, our Web Rangers transform traditional scouting.

We believe such educational efforts represent the best ways to increase online safety as many risks teens face online, such as bullying, are difficult if not impossible to combat through regulation or filtering technologies. This was also proven by the results of the first ever Russian study which measured the level of digital literacy skills of Russian school children aged 12-17. Key findings include:

• 75% of kids learnt to use Internet on their own, without help from school or parents;
• 55% of Russian kids agree to meet online strangers in real life without even letting grownups know (compared to the EU's 9% average);
• both teens and parents expressed strong willingness to receive additional training on online safety and hope schools would help to provide necessary literacy programmes; fewer than 20% of parents believe legislation will help keep their children safe online, despite the Russian Law on Protecting Children from Harmful Information which entered force in November 2012; parents claimed digital literacy programs and education are a key to family safety on the Internet.

Russian children have fun studying web safety

Creating a code of conduct for web surfing

At the same time, we recognize the need for companies to step up on protecting children. Our project in Russia arms teachers with a textbook and interactive exercises kit for the classroom. It gives useful tips for teachers and parents on how to turn on safety tools on Google Search, YouTube and Android based on the Good to Know educational portal, and includes advice from educators and psychologists on how to explain key online safety rules to teenagers through case studies, games and videos.

Teachers in Moscow and several other Russian regions have already received training through this programme and are now actively using it in their schools. One of the exercises encourages kids to create their own code of conduct on the web, then discuss and share their experiences with teachers and fellow students. We look forward to seeing the program spread in schools throughout the country.





Posted by Ksenia Karyakina, Senior Policy Analyst, Russia