The Cyberscout program is among the top ten of Europe's best cybersecurity projects

The educational training program Cyberscout by Telenor and the Bulgarian Safer Internet Center had been nominated for the European Crime Prevention Awards. The program took the respectable ninth place among the eighteen finalists during the Best Practice Conference in Tallinn, Estonia.

The Cyberscout program has evoked great interest among representatives of Europol, national police services and educational organizations. They have expressed willingness to learn more about the prospects of initiating such programs in other countries as well. The Secretariat of the European Crime Prevention Network (EUCPN) invited the Bulgarian Safer Internet Center to share their knowledge on safer internet with international experts and professionals on January 25, 2018 in Brussels, Belgium.

The Cyberscout program is held for a third consecutive year and is aimed at raising awareness of students and teachers about the risks on the Internet and ways of overcoming them. The participants in the educational activities acquire knowledge and practical skills for online safety which then they pass on to their peers. Up to date, there are over 500 trained cyber scouts in over 30 locations in Bulgaria. As a result of the activities and the public engagements of the cyber scouts, the total number of children who already know how to protect themselves on the Internet is nearly 5,000.

The successful initiative of Telenor and the Safer Internet Center was presented during a discussion on online violence against children organized by UNICEF Bulgaria on December 14. During the event, the Cyberscout program received recognition from Clara Sommarin, Child Protection Specialist, Exploitation & Violence Programmes, at UNICEF Headquarters in New York, USA.

The occasion for the event was the report "The State of the World’s Children 2017: Children in a digital world", which presents UNICEF's first detailed look at the ways digital technologies affect the lives of the children.

As a socially responsible company, Telenor actively supports and participates in the initiatives related to ensuring the safest internet experience possible. More information on the company’s initiatives dedicated to the safety of children online is available here.