#DigitSafe - Boosting digital safe spaces and resilience

“#DigitSafe-Boosting digital safe spaces and resilience” Project following the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2017 and in line with the EU Youth Goal 6 “Information & Constructive Dialogue”, aims at empowering young people to become resilient and safe digital citizens, enabling them to address some of the challenges and negative impacts of the digital era. The results of the DigitFIT project, in which members of this Consortium have participated, pointed out the difficulties young people find when looking for compiled information and for knowledge on how to act when their digital privacy and security is undermined or when they face cyberbullying and hate speech. To implement #DigitSafe, the joint work of the five European partners that composed this Consortium, will be required: CONEXX-EU (Belgium) as coordinator, CESUR (Spain), Inova Aspire (The Netherlands), Radio Alma (Belgium) and PFE (Bulgaria). In the field of digital safety and resilience among young people (18-30 y.o), project’s target, a number of needs that will be addressed by #DigitSafe are highlighted by the Consortium.

The entire #DigitSafe project aimed to foster broader and deeper knowledge among young people on two key topics: Cybersecurity & Hate Speech, and Security & Privacy. This initiative specifically targeted the most vulnerable groups of young individuals, intending to construct safer digital communal spaces and practices while enhancing their capacities in terms of digital resilience.By gathering essential information concerning these issues within the legal, psychological, and social framework and compiling it to ensure accessibility for young people, especially through their frequently used social media platforms, the #DigitSafe Project also sought to achieve the following specific main objectives: To promote digital citizenship among young people in the participating countries, in line with the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027. This involved empowering them with practical and compiled information about Security & Privacy, Hate Speech & Cyberbullying. To equip young people, particularly those with fewer opportunities who often lack information and data literacy, with the necessary skills to enhance their digital resilience.

The #DigitSafe Project was implemented over 24 months through two main results composed of nine activities that generated a similar and balanced workload between all partners: IO1: #DigitSafe Digital Resilience Handbook on Cyberbullying, Hate Speech, Security & Privacy, led by Professional Forum for Education IO2: #DigitSafe Public Awareness Campaign through Social Media & Open Access platform, led by CONEXX-EUROPE The Consortium's purpose with IO1 was to raise awareness of the overall opportunities young people had to deal with digital threats and challenges to become empowered and resilient digital citizens. Five activities were implemented within IO1 between M1-M10: ACTIVITY1: Research and collection of information on educational, legal, psychological, and social resources available regarding the thematic modules in a multilevel context. ACTIVITY2: Drafting of the #DigitSafe Handbook. Analysis and organization of information to structure the modules. ACTIVITY3: Translations. The handbook, in addition to English, was made available in all partner languages: French, Spanish, Bulgarian, and Dutch. ACTIVITY4: Handbook Assessment. Development of 15 surveys per partner translated into the project languages to reach 75 young people from the target group to verify the usefulness of the produced material. ACTIVITY5: Design & Layout of the Handbook, presented in the most engaging and efficient way, remaining available online for free access. Once IO1 was completed, the project proceeded with the four IO2 activities implemented from M11 to M24: ACTIVITY1: Development of the #DigitSafe Multimedia Strategy. An internal document containing the multichannel, multilingual, and multi-format strategy executed through various social media and the project’s open access platform. ACTIVITY2: Creation of the www.digitsafe.com Open Access platform and social media profiles to contain all necessary sections for when the campaign starts (IO2.A4). ACTIVITY3: Focus Group. Four virtual focus groups and one designed as a radio program in Belgium were conducted, reaching 7-10 representatives of the target group per partner to test the Content Strategy in execution and deliver a national report. ACTIVITY4: #Digitsafe Public Awareness Campaign. An 8-month multichannel, multi-format, and multilingual dissemination of knowledge campaign under the #DigitSafe name was executed. The IO2 milestone fulfilled the project's objectives of promoting youth digital citizenship to face digital challenges, providing them with the necessary competences to enhance their digital resilience, and strengthening their ability to preserve their rights in the digital field.

#DigitSafe - Boosting digital safe spaces and resilience project expected two complementary main outcomes, resulting from each of the two Intellectual Outputs that shaped the project: IO1: #DigitSafe Digital Resilience Handbook on Cyberbullying, Hate Speech, Security & Privacy: Comprising two complementary modules (Cyberbullying & Hate Speech, and Security & Privacy), it offered guidance, practical information (legal resources, psychological resources, tips, open learning resources, and other training resources), and key recommendations on different issues for youth to acquire a more in-depth knowledge of their rights, digital risks, and threats in the context of these topics. It raised awareness on the opportunities and resources available to build skills for dealing with issues arising from young people’s current digital lives (e.g., how to protect oneself from cyberbullying in a job-seeking process or how to better manage one's published contents when accepting terms and conditions on the apps). It empowered youth to become engaged digital citizens and foster a safer digital world. It curated a vast amount of information, unifying it in a more useful and comprehensive way. It was available for free for everyone through the project’s platform in five European languages (English, Spanish, French, Dutch, and Bulgarian). IO2: #DigitSafe Public Awareness Campaign through Social Media & Open Access platform. It disseminated the knowledge contained in the IO1's handbook’s information by translating the handbook into multimedia and multilingual contents, published through its various social media profiles and www.digitsafe.com platform. A Multimedia Strategy was drafted, containing all the needed elements for planning a campaign of these characteristics; the platform and social media profiles were created, and the campaign ran for 8 months. It produced multiple audiovisual contents using different social media tools and trends, strategically disseminated through a multi-channel strategy (expected to be at least Instagram, TikTok, SoundCloud, YouTube, and Twitch). These results impacted the consortium, target audience, and wider public at several levels. Within the partnership, knowledge increased around the researched topics, providing new tools to become digitally resilient and perform their professional activity in a digitally safer way. Through the public awareness campaign, they developed new capacities on the current social media landscape, maximizing their capacity to communicate with youth. Externally, a large number of European youth (comprising a high percentage of youngsters in vulnerable situations) and other stakeholders (such as youth workers engaged in the project’s topics) were impacted. In the handbook, they found a comprehensive tool to refer to when looking for a unified set of resources to learn and develop training for youth on these topics, and through the campaign, they were impacted by its messages and gained knowledge and capacities through the same digital languages and spaces they used in their daily life. The impact was regional, national, and European. The handbook and a large number of multimedia contents were made available in the mentioned five languages, and young people from the consortium’s communities were carefully selected to take part in the evaluation phases of the IOs, bringing a local/national approach to the results. The Dissemination Communication and Visibility Plan of the project itself took a multilevel geographical and sociological approach. Via the project’s open access platform, everyone had full access to its results, which were thought to be sustained in time, due to its transferability and its potential to be reshared and reappropriated by the audience on social media, remaining also available for young people facing issues on Cyberbullying, Hate Speech, Security, and Privacy.