The UIC START Career Guidance Festival in Digital and Engineering Technologies was held in Izhevsk, the capital of Udmurtia, on November 20. It brought together over 1,000 participants: 7-9-graders and college students who study IT, as well as their parents and teachers.
The festival marked the 25th anniversary of the .RU domain, as well as the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Kalashnikov, and was timed to coincide with the 10th Udmurtian Internet Conference (UIC 2019). The organizer was the Izhevsk-based company Picom with the support of the Udmurtian Ministry of Informatization and Communications, and the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ.
During the first, theoretical part of the festival Viktoria Bunchuk, head of social projects at the Coordination Center, presented a report with the main rules of online security:
“We discussed with the school students how to create a strong password; why it is necessary to install anti-virus software on each device that is connected to the internet; what a domain is and how can it help the user check whether the website is unsafe; how to protect your personal data; who internet trolls are, what cyberbullying is, and how to avoid problems while communicating online; and also who to contact if you face an online threat,” Viktoria Bunchuk said. “Of course, children know most of these rules and apply them, but not everyone knows about the safe use of personal data on the net. I hope that after our discussion, their attitude to protecting their confidentiality online will change for the best.”
During the second, practical, part of the festival, Bunchuk held the Learn the Internet, Govern It! competition, where forum participants answered questions on the history and structure of the global and Russian internet, internet security and culture, websites and services. The students faced dozens of questions related to practical digital skills, such as the effective use of IT tools and services.
