The Foundation presented the “Domain .ДЕТИ” project in the main children’s library of the country
All-Russian video conference “Together for a Family Internet: The Role and Potential of Libraries”, organized in cooperation with the Center for a Safe Internet “NeDopusti.Ru” as part of the Safer Runet Week (7-14 February), was held in a hybrid format at the Russian State Children’s Library on February 9.
The sessions were attended by leading media and information literacy researchers, specialists in children’s interaction with information, as well as representatives of the library community, who implement their own projects to ensure information security for children in the regions.
Victoria Bunchuk, a representative of the Smart Internet Foundation, spoke about its flagship project, the .ДЕТИ domain (dot children), and Smart Journal, a digital publication dedicated to the children’s Internet industry. Victoria noted that .ДЕТИ is an online space of trust, which is also a combination of high-quality and safe content placed on one website.
“The main advantage of this domain zone is its security. All websites with an address in the .ДЕТИ are constantly monitored for malicious activity. Therefore, if any malicious content or digital vulnerabilities suddenly appear on their pages, then such websites are either completely removed from the zone (in especially neglected cases), or we contact their owners to quickly fix the problem,” Victoria said.
She also noted that another important advantage of the .ДЕТИ is that the domains there are Cyrillic, which means that the website address can be easily remembered and found without even turning to a search engine. Victoria Bunchuk also told the audience about the most interesting and useful sites in the .ДЕТИ, collected in a special catalogue. Among them: библиотека.дети (library dot children), персональныеданные.дети (personal data dot children), касперский.дети (Kaspersky dot children), домашка.дети (homework dot children), монтессори.дети (montessori dot children), здоровые.дети (healthy dot children) and many others.
Olga Yakovleva, Head of the project department of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, who, by the way, is the founder of the .ДЕТИ, presented the interactive project “Study the Internet & Govern It!”. She shared with the audience her experience of creating a special game module for blind users – it became compatible with screen readers.
“According to data provided by our partners, out of 11.5 million people with disabilities in Russia, about 10% have a disability associated with visual impairment. For this category of users, it is very important that digital accessibility is ensured, and websites are compatible with special screen readers that translate text into speech. We wondered how to approach this topic and where to start. With colleagues from Everland, we assessed the accessibility of the website and mobile app of our project for blind users. After that, we found developers who can make a special module for our interactive portal. After its development and testing, we were certified and received the sign of accessibility for users with disabilities,” Olga Yakovleva said.
Olga also announced the start of the All-Russian Family IT Marathon, registration for which will open on March 2. The topic of the IT marathon this year is “Digital Literacy”. In the first stage, which will take place before the online tournament, participants will be asked to make a video podcast on the topic “The Teacher Who Conquered the Internet” as a task for additional points. The tasks of the tournament itself will be devoted to information, media, communication, computer literacy, future technologies and Internet security.
Elizaveta Belyakova, Chairman of the Alliance for the Protection of Children in the Digital Environment, presented the Charter “Digital Ethics of Childhood”, the participants of which assumed a voluntary obligation to strengthen interaction in order to create a safe and favorable digital environment for children, opening up opportunities for their creative and professional self-development, socialization and secure communication.
Ruslan Yusufov, founder of the analytical center MINDSMITH, spoke about the “Technologies For Protecting Children On The Internet” study prepared by Rostelecom as part of the Alliance. He presented a map that reflected 23 relevant cyber risks, distributed according to the degree of danger and the elaboration of protection measures. Among them are cyberbullying, identity theft, information pressure, dangerous trends and challenges, stalking, addiction formation and others.
A survey of professionals in the fields of cybersecurity, child psychology, and sociology was conducted as part of the study, which also included the analysis of 300 patents and the identification of 8 clusters of protection technologies. Among the recommendations based on the results of the study, the study of best practices and the exchange of experience, discussions at professional and events were proposed; ethical review of distributed digital content; dissemination of initiatives aimed at developing the protection of children and youth on the Internet; targeted support for children and youth who have experienced the consequences of cyberattacks.
The recording of the plenary part of the videoconference “Together for a Family Internet: The Role and Potential of Libraries” is available on the official YouTube channel of the Russian State Children’s Library.