Armenia has joined to the pan-European initiative of celebrating the Safer Internet Day in February this year and a wide array of activities have been organized since February 10, 2009 in Yerevan by the Media Education Center and Microsoft Corporation.
A new website resource with links to and a collection of teaching and learning resources devoted to e-safety and social networking was launched. The web-site contains sections on blogs, chat rooms, social networks, file-sharing and filtering. For the first time Armenian users can read in Armenian about Internet-related risks, such as cyber-bulling, fishing, farming, Internet fraud and identity theft. The web-site highlights such issues as copyright and protection of private information. It contains useful tips to parents, children, teenagers and teachers on safer and more responsible behavior on the web.
A round table and several workshops on safer and more responsible use of on-line technology, mobile phones and and Internet literacy were organized in Armenia's schools by Media Education Center and Microsoft-Armenia for youngsters, parents, teachers, local authorities and NGOs. Noyan Tapan Media Holding, Internet Society of Armenia, National Center of Educational Technologies, Union of IT Enterprises, CAPS/USAID, Enterprise Incubator Foundation, iCon ISP, “ IT and Women” joined the initiative, representatives of World Bank, British Council and ArmenTel / BeeLine actively participated in discussions.
Within two weeks in computer laboratories of the Mkhitar Sebastatsy Educational Complex, Physic-Mathematical School after Shahinyan and other school children learned about safer usage of the web by playing on-line games. Children also prepared their own presentations about spam, viruses and cyber etiquette. Microsoft Corporation described the usage of Internet filters and disseminated information on filtering software. Two competitions were announced among school children and teachers: "The Best Electronic Teaching Material" and "The Best School Web-Site".
Currently, Media Education Center elaborates a new “Safer Internet Armenia” project which will be aimed at raising public awareness about safe and effective use of the Internet and other information and communication technologies. The aim of the project is to educate children, parents, youths and teachers support how to use new technologies effectively and positively for the benefit of society. The experts of Media Education Center have already analyzed more than 10000 web-sites and created a collection of links to 3000 safe educational web-resources.
