Post Conference Theme

Risks accompanying the increasing use of new technologies by children and young people have quickly developed into a major educational challenge of our era. Whereas children make a constantly growing use of new technologies and whereas an increasingly significant part of their social life takes place online, the Internet is increasingly being used by potential and actual offenders for preparing the abuse of children. This idea underlies the Recommendation on combating the sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, issued by the European Parliament on 3 February 2009. This concern also underlies the European Commission campaign against cyber-bullying (Safer Internet Day), launched in 10 February 2009.

While generally recognised as an important problem, the scope and complexity of cyber-bullying and sexual harassment via Internet constantly offers frightening new evidence, and potential educational interventions are still largely under-explored. The conference being held in Tallinn, Estonia, focuses on the connections between the traditional patterns of risky behaviour of children and young people, and the new risks concurred with the use of new technologies and globalisation of communication. The reason for holding this conference in Tallinn is that Estonia is one of the most wired nations in the World while the safety requirements concerning the Internet communication have been relatively low. An Internet paedophile was arrested recently, who had contacts with more than a hundred under-aged boys in a number of European countries, including Austria, Denmark, Latvia, Netherlands, and Norway. More than 40 of the harassed teenagers were from Estonia. The investigation was initiated from Estonia and it quickly developed into an international undertaking.

At the conference, issues concerning the educational and social aspects of cyber-bullying and sexual exploitation of children will be discussed with relevant examples, and potential educational solutions will be analysed.