The 9th national scientific and practical conference, Information Security and Children, is taking place on March 10–14. This year’s central theme is “Preserving mental and somatic health in children and youth: Challenges and solutions.”
The event is organized by the Academy of Innovative Education and Development, the Technologies of Influence consulting group, and Clinical Hospital No. 85 of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency of Russia. The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ is once again a conference partner.
On March 11, the conference hosted the online session “Developing digital hygiene among children and youth as a foundation for successful socialization,” moderated by Andrey Vorobyev, Director of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ, and Yelizaveta Belyakova, Chair of the Alliance for Child Protection in the Digital Environment. Discussions addressed pressing issues, including cyberbullying prevention, fostering digital hygiene, and raising children and adolescents in an increasingly digitalized society.
Andrey Vorobyev highlighted the Coordination Center’s educational initiatives, such as the Explore the Internet Mentor School and Unlocking the Code projects, implemented in partnership with the Academy of Innovative Education and Development. The Mentor School is designed precisely for educators, pedagogical students, postgraduates, and professionals working with youth, while Unlocking the Code focuses on teaching programming basics to students and mentors from orphanages, boarding schools, small-class and rural schools.
Igor Sviridov, Deputy Director of the Integral R&D Institute, addressed threats linked to the online spread of extremist ideologies among youth. He outlined key challenges, such as canvassing, radicalization and propaganda of destructive ideas, and proposed countermeasures.
Yelizaveta Belyakova, Chair of the Alliance for Child Protection in the Digital Environment, discussed the Alliance’s foundational document – the Digital Childhood Ethics Charter – created to unite organizations, including educational institutions, in building a safe, trusted digital environment for minors.
“When drafting the Charter, we recognized that children are now born with gadgets in hand – this is a norm. A term like “cyber-socialization” has even emerged,” she noted.
A recording of the session is available on the conference’s VK page.
