EU project SocialWeb - SocialWork qualifies social youth workers

Berlin/Brussels, August 12th, 2013 - The International Youth Day calls for action to strengthen national capacities in the field of youth and to increase the quality and quantity of opportunities available to young people for full, effective and constructive participation in society. Young people should be treated as equal partners; their commitment and creativity should be acknowledged and supported. Nowadays the Internet serves for the perfect platform to achieve these goals (s. UN resolution 54/120).

Nonetheless some children and youths might need support in availing the benefits of the Internet and social media that have become an indispensable part of their daily life. Here, youth organisations and youth welfare organisations play an important role in promoting media literacy - as social youth workers can be engaged and qualified partners in empowering children and youths to benefit from the Internet and cope with its challenges.

A survey within the European project SocialWeb - SocialWork reveals that social youth workers frequently encounter questions regards internet usage by their young clients. The activities that have been observed by the 200 respondents from five countries most often are: watching video clips (81 %), playing Internet games (78%), visiting social network profiles (76%), and posting photos, videos or music to share with others (73%). But social workers also notice children or youths having potentially inappropriate experiences. This mostly refers to contact with someone, the children/youths have never met before (47 %), to experiences that generally bother the children and youths (46 %), to images that are obviously sexual (41 %) and to harmful and nasty messages children and youths received (41 %).

"Although it can be assumed that social workers have their well-proven strategies how to address their young target group, the results of the study suggest that many of them did not plunge into the everyday life of so-called digital natives so far." declares Jutta Croll, managing director of the project coordinator Stiftung Digitale Chancen. "As the internet serves as an ideal platform for children's and youths' personal development, social workers should be trained for accompanying their young clients in the digital world."

About the project SocialWeb - SocialWork

The project SocialWeb - SocialWork is a knowledge enhancement project in the Safer Internet Programme funded by the European Commission and coordinated by Stiftung Digitale Chancen from Germany. Project partners are Nobody’s Children Foundation (Poland), Fundación Esplai (Spain), Narodni centrum bezpecnejsiho internet (Czech Republic) and RIAP Association (Lithuania). The duration is 24 months from May 2012 till May 2014.
The project is sustained by the expertise of an Advisory Board including (in alphabetical order) John Carr, Dr. Per Christiansen (Hans-Bredow-Institut), Dr. Renata Geležiniene, (Lithuania Republic Special pedagogue association), Loreta Krizinauskiene (Association LIA /Langas I ateiti), Andreas Link (jugendschutz.net), Prof. Sonia Livingstone (London School of Economics), Tink Palmer (The Marie Collins Foundation), Ana Luiza Rotta Soares (PROTEGELES).

For more information, please visit the project’s website under www.socialweb-socialwork.eu

About the Stiftung Digitale Chancen

The goal of the Stiftung Digitale Chancen (Digital Opportunities Foundation) is to make people interested in the Internet and to support them with their steps into the digital world. The foundation wants them to become aware of the opportunities this digital medium offers and to make use of them.
Stiftung Digitale Chancen was founded in January 2002 in Berlin by AOL Germany and the University of Bremen. Co-founders are Accenture and the Burda Foundation. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth have taken on the patronage.

Press contact
Jutta Croll
Stiftung Digitale Chancen - Managing Director
Chausseestr. 15
10115 Berlin
Tel.: (030 ) 437277-30
Fax: (030) 437277-39
E-Mail: jcroll@digitale-chancen.de
Mobil: 0163-5493-773