News Overview 2021

Adolescents are confronted with an unmanageable range of digital media. Parents are therefore looking for products that are pedagogically recommendable. The Pedagogical Media Award, which was once again awarded to twelve outstanding media products for children and young people, offers guidance. The winners were selected jointly by children, young people and experts.

How can we keep the positive aspects of the increasing digitalization of our lives while avoiding the negative aspects? We explore this question in our latest podcast episode. On the occasion of the publication of the klicksafe teaching material "Ommm online", we want to find out together with communication scientist Dr. Ruth Wendt how we can increase our digital well-being. The focus will of course once again be on the question of how children and young people in particular can learn a healthy approach to digital media.

Children and young people need measures in social media offerings and online games to protect them from interaction risks such as bullying and cybergrooming. To find out how children and young people view and deal with these, the JFF - Institute for Media Education in Research and Practice conducted a qualitative study on behalf of the German Children's Fund.

Who hasn't experienced this: We actually wanted to put the smartphone away a long time ago, but we're still glued to our devices. The pull of the digital is getting stronger and stronger, and many of us are finding it increasingly difficult to control it. With our new teaching material, you can teach young people why digital media are addictive and how to get out of the spiral of constant attention.

According to the new miniKIM study, two- to five-year-old children already spend as much time with streaming services as with traditional television. klicksafe presents some of the study's findings and provides parents with guidance on the safe use of streaming services.

On Seitenstark Media Day, the Seitenstark network joins forces with the Standing Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK), the Ministry of Education of Rhineland-Palatinate, Südwestrundfunk (SWR), the EU initiative klicksafe, the Media Authority of Rhineland-Palatinate and many other committed stakeholders to promote the use of positive digital offerings for children at school, in their free time and at home.

After extensive testing: More than 1,600 children and young people decided on this year's winners of the German Children's Software Award TOMMI. More than 50 games and educational products were put through their paces in around 20 libraries in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The TOMMI has been awarded every year since 2002 to high-quality digital games and educational offerings for children in order to make them known to a wider audience.

October 21 is a special date in the online world: Children's Site Day. This year, the campaign day is themed "With super power and sunshine!" and has very special surprises in store for children.

Who can say "Chubby Bunny" with marshmallows in their mouth? Who can stand not laughing the longest? There are new challenges on YouTube and TikTok almost every day. These are not always harmless and funny, some can be dangerous. Our new klicksafe teaching unit offers educational professionals suggestions for working on the topic of challenges with children and young people.

The Netflix series Squid Game from South Korea is currently the topic of conversation in the media and on many schoolyards. Many parents are worried about the violent plot, which apparently also encourages imitation.

Misinformation prevents girls from getting involved in politics and society. This is the conclusion of a survey conducted by Plan International on the occasion of World Girls' Day. According to the survey, misinformation is a major reason why girls no longer want to share their opinions on social networks. In addition, schools are failing to teach digital media skills.

If parents are looking for something suitable for their children to watch, they will now find it even faster at FLIMMO. The parents' guide has been completely redesigned and now also takes a closer look at content beyond classic television. Whether TV, media libraries, cinema, streaming or YouTube - FLIMMO provides an overview of everything that is currently on and helps with pedagogical assessments in the age-appropriate selection.

On Monday evening there was a world without Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp for several hours. How about consciously going offline for a change? In the peer-to-peer youth campaign of klicksafe and Nummer gegen Kummer, young people give suggestions. We offer the offline challenge with small tasks for each day as a PDF for download.

Every year, October is dedicated to cyber security throughout Europe on the occasion of European Cyber Security Month (ECSM). This month of action is coordinated in Germany by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). The BSI has already been able to win over more than one hundred organizations and institutions as partners. Over the next four weeks, they will be addressing the topic of cyber security in webinars, video series and awareness campaigns.

How can we improve our digital well-being? To answer this question, the German Awareness Centre klicksafe and the helpline Nummer gegen Kummer e.V. have conducted a peer-to-peer youth campaign on digital wellbeing.