The Fourth Annual Interregional Scientific and Practical Conference, Digital Socialization of Children and Adults: Transforming the Worldview and Security Issues, was held at the Department of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University. The conference opened the 2020 Safer Internet Week in Russia. The Safer Internet Week is an official part of a series of events dedicated to Safer Internet Day, established in 2004 by the European Commission.
The conference was attended by experts from the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ. The center’s Director Andrey Vorobyev delivered remarks at the opening of the conference. He noted the great role that the country’s leading IT companies play in improving digital literacy. “It seems especially important to increase digital competence and media literacy in cybersecurity among teachers and school psychologists. It is teachers who today mainly influence the development of a positive digital culture among teenagers and young people and an increase in information security in the educational environment,” Andrey Vorobyev said. He called on the IT industry to assist the teaching community in promoting professional competencies necessary to develop practical programs to counter and prevent destructive behavior of adolescents on the internet. At the end of his remarks, Andrey Vorobyev presented the Dean of the Department of Psychology at Moscow State University, Doctor of Psychology, Professor Yury Zinchenko with a commemorative frame with an anniversary postage stamp issued for the 25th anniversary of the ccTLD domain .RU.
Tatyana Novikova, project manager of the Coordination Center, delivered a report called “Experience of social projects on cybersecurity and digital literacy of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ.” She spoke in detail about how the center runs and develops its projects, focusing on the development of digital literacy skills in children and adolescents. Tatyana Novikova presented a number of the center’s new projects, including a quiz, a contest and the educational project, Journey on the Runet, which were held as part of the celebrations marking the 25th anniversary of the .RU domain together with the Karusel children’s channel. She also spoke about the innovations in the Learn the Internet, Govern It! game and about the film Internet for All, which was shot by the Social Cinema Foundation for the Coordination Center. The conference participants praised the social and educational projects of the Coordination Center aimed at improving the digital competencies of internet users.
This year, the Safer Internet Week will be held from February 11 to 19 throughout Russia for the thirteenth time. It was first held in 2008, at the initiative of ROCIT and the Russian office of Microsoft. All events of the week are united by the theme of internet users’ safety, as well as the ethical use of technologies for the benefit of mankind, maximizing opportunities and minimizing risks when using internet technologies.
