On February 12, the Russian State Children’s Library (RSCL) hosted the nationwide video conference, Together for Family Internet. The event traditionally coincides with Safer Runet Week, which this year marked its 19th edition. Over 3,000 participants from 87 Russian regions attended the conference, both in person and online.
The conference was designed to share experiences in creating an engaging, safe, and educational digital environment among cultural sector professionals from various regions, while also introducing them to new digital trends from internet industry representatives. The first part of the conference focused precisely on these emerging trends.
Speakers repeatedly emphasized that the digital landscape is highly dynamic and constantly evolving, and unfortunately, digital threats are also taking on new forms. As highlighted by RSCL Deputy Director Olga Mezentseva and Advisor to the Director of the flagship children’s library Natalya Arakcheyeva, the key distinction between libraries and other stakeholders in the digital safety perimeter lies in their primary function: educating both children and parents. However, fulfilling this role effectively is only possible through collaboration with other specialists in the digital safety perimeter. Ilya Gavrishin, Deputy Director for Informatization at RSCL, added that the government also provides certain guidelines, and thanks to its efforts much of the information security landscape has finally been regulated.
Many experts identified the shifting ways children perceive content – compared to previous generations – as the starting point for developing educational strategies. Dmitry Deulin, Dean of the Department of Extreme Psychology at the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, noted that clip thinking, largely shaped by short-form videos on social media and streaming platforms, directly impacts declining academic performance. Children are losing the ability to process large volumes of information, and modern texts are increasingly being simplified as a result. This leads to self-alienation – an inability to form offline connections. At the same time, numerous experiments show that material from offline sources is still absorbed better than digital content.
One approach to addressing these challenges in education and awareness-raising, according to specialists, is adapting materials to these changing conditions. Igor Sviridov, Deputy Director of the Integral R&D Institute, presented the animated series Neuropolis for middle school audiences (ages 12–16) and the quarterly-published coloring book Cyberschool, which has been translated into the primary languages of BRICS nations. Albina Mukhamedzyanova, CEO of the YARKO animation studio, showcased her project Bright Cybersecurity. The Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ boasted the most extensive catalog of educational materials and services, consolidated under its CC Academy. Viktoria Bunchuk, Head of Social Projects at the Coordination Center, noted that the CC Academy targets diverse audiences and addresses various digital literacy challenges, bringing together over 50 educational projects. These include an Encyclopedia of 150 articles on internet infrastructure and a Library of popular science and educational materials – not to mention the organization’s most renowned initiative, Explore the Internet & Govern It! In this context, Viktoria Bunchuk and Urvan Parfentyev, Coordinator of the Safe Internet Center in Russia, introduced other Safer Runet Week events, all of which share the same educational and informative character.
Another approach – or rather, the next stage of the first – was presented by Darya Storublevtseva, Head of the Department at the Moscow State Institute of Culture. She noted that for children to engage with “large-format informational content,” an “informational intermediary” is needed to present the essence of a work in a concise manner, sparking their interest to explore it in full. Such an intermediary, she explained, functions as a kind of virtual librarian. Artificial intelligence could assist in creating this teaser or hook, but human oversight is essential to review and verify the generated material. Given children’s preference for visual information, the hook could well take the form of a video.
Andrey Yarnykh, who spent years on the front lines of cyber threat combat at Kaspersky Lab, shared insights into current cybersecurity trends. He highlighted the potential dangers of many commonplace virtual assistants and gadgets – from smartwatches, which can easily track their owner’s movements, to biometrics, which poses risks due to the irreversibility of data if compromised. He also noted that AI is increasingly being leveraged to write viruses, with up to 460,000 new malware variants detected daily worldwide. Addressing the perennial challenge of maintaining a unique, complex password for every service, Yarnykh suggested mnemonic or associative techniques, where passwords are recalled through associations – making even complex, individualized passwords easier to remember.
The conference also featured a workshop on the issue of personal data handling, led by Vladislav Chistyakov, Deputy Director of the Integral R&D Institute.
The second part of the conference revealed that regional approaches to digital literacy initiatives largely align with Moscow recommendations. For example, the Tambov Regional Children’s Library presented a project somewhat akin to the CC Academy – Digital Internship. This program combines online and offline activities, encompassing not only knowledge acquisition but also practical application through lectures, quests, games, and other formats familiar to younger generations. Notably, Digital Internship also covers digital law, exploring how online actions are viewed from a legal standpoint.
As a reminder, the events of the 19th Safer Runet Week will continue until February 26. The full program is available on the official website: неделя-безопасного-рунета.рф. Stay updated on the Week’s activities through the Coordination Center’s information channels and join the nationwide digital literacy campaign!
