16/02/2018

Create, connect and share respect: A better internet starts with you! was the theme for this year's Safer Internet Day, celebrated on 6 February 2018 in more than 140 countries.

Safer Internet Day (SID) is organised by the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres (on behalf of the European Commission) in February of each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially among children and young people across the world. Although the campaign originally started in Europe back in 2004, it has grown year on year since that time, celebrated in more than 140 countries. A SID supporter profile is a way for organisations to show their support for the aims and objectives of the Safer Internet Day campaign (and wider Better Internet for Kids strategy), and a way to display their own resources which contribute to the cause.

Against this background, eConfidence has registered as a Safer Internet Day supporter! When asked what did we do to support the Safer Internet Day 2018 theme we answered that in spite of a consensus on the instructional potential of serious games, there is still a lack of methodologies and tools that encompass their design, support analysis and assessment. Filling this gap is one of the main aims of eConfidence.

eConfidence will provide new opportunities for tracking and analysing behavioural data and interpreting it in an educationally meaningful way, improving the assessment of progress, performance, learning outcomes, game quality and user appreciation. The serious games produced during the project and the research methodology aims to be useful for a wide range of stakeholders, including:

• Academia and research community, by means of the scientific findings on Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) and Learning Analytics (LA) applied to game design.
• Schools and young people, thanks to the methods and games to support understanding and acquisition of social skills in relation to safe use of the internet and bullying.
• Game industry, using more effective and successful games development strategies and business models, for higher return of investment through time-saving replicable processes, for serious and educational games
• Policy makers, through input for recommendations on the potential of gaming for behavioural change.

If you want to find out more about eConfidence, check out the information regarding the project, partners and resources.

If you want to register your support for Safer Internet Day, you can get in touch with your national Safer Internet Day Committees, check the list of supporters and stay tuned for Safer Internet Day 2019 taking place on 5 February 2019.