"Schau hin - Cybermobbing, Sexting, Posting, Grooming im Alltag der Jugend-Sozialarbeit Good practice example

Every year more than 3.7 million children are born in Europe. They grow up in an environment where social media is everywhere. One of the challenges of this media has in recent years gotten more and more public attention. That of cyberbullying, sexting, posting and grooming. These are new forms of bullying that are present on platforms such as email, instant messaging services, chatrooms and mobile phones. What's particularly nasty with this type of bullying compared to traditional forms is that the victims have nowhere to escape. Even at home in their own rooms they can be reached by the bullying. The European Parliament understands this and has in November 2012 called on the Commission and the Member States for "The protection of children in the digital world, to explore all possibilities and to pull together for a systematic training of all people working in the youth field." The project "Look at it - cyberbullying, sexting, posting and grooming a daily experience in youth-centered social work" deals with this phenomenon which is becoming a problem particularly among youths who are disadvantaged socially and use media to a high degree. Young people often spend their leisure time in day care centers, community centers, youth clubs, youth cafés but also in public libraries, sport clubs and other facilities, where they look for support and advice. There they can come into contact with social workers who know the real world. But young people also live a virtual life with challenges, dangers and fascinations that remains closed to professional social workers. Why? They lack the skills they need to adequately deal with all the challenges the digital world presents. They have not grown up with these media around them. Neither has it been a part of their curriculum. This educational gap will be filled with this tailor-made project for social workers. A consortium with seven partners from 6 European countries involved in the educational work have undertaken this task and worked out material for working with children and adolescents on the basis of a needs survey. The material is available at www.cyberhelp.eu. With this material, the planned double strategy can be implemented: A) Prevention, education and awareness in the use of digital media and their risks. B) Interventions and early detection by means of illustrative case studies and the provision of the detailed discussion guideline. C) The policy could be included from the outset. The protection of children and adolescents in the digital world is an all-European concern. The results can be accessed and used free of charge in 9 European languages: - The needs analysis, which concretises the above-mentioned needs. - Important background information about cyberbullying, sexting, posing, grooming and its impact (from definitions to practical instructions) and about the legal background. - A role-playing game "ready to use" for social workers and youth workers to communicate with children and young people. Allowing to work in two ways preventive as well as interactively on the topic of cyberbullying, sexting, posing and grooming. - A discussion guideline will enable them to communicate with children and young people in a resource-oriented manner. - A pool of ideas enriches these materials with case studies and material from all partner countries. So, social workers can assemble material in accordance to their wishes and preferences. - A media library supplements the collection of material for the target group with book proposals, video examples from all countries. In each partner country, national multiplier events were held with stakeholders and social pedagogues. The feedback shows that adequate materials for working with children and adolescents in the field of cyberbullying, sexting and grooming had been developed successfully. It meets the requirements and will remain available in the long term on the only multilingual European homepage on the subject. In addition to these important dissemination events, a broad spectrum of dissemination activities has been implemented by all partners in their countries ranging from radio interviews, print and online medias to project advisory boards of politicians. The patrons have become very actively engaged in spreading information about the network.