Ministry of Transport, Information Technology and Communications

According to a survey among families with children aged 9-16 in 25 European countries, over 90 percent of Bulgarian children use the Internet every day. This was announced by the Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technology and Communications Valery Borissov at the opening of a round table on the protection of children online. The study found that Bulgarian parents are among the most interested in the online contacts their children have.

The new generation uses more smartphones as devices to access the global network and the parental control is getting ever more difficult to exercise, added the Deputy Minister. In his words, the role of the family and institutions now is to teach children about the dangers of the Internet, the ways to respond to the risks and how to regulate their behavior on the network. "They need to know that opportunities go hand in hand with risks," said Valery Borissov.

This year several initiatives of the Ministry of Transport and Communications are aimed at expressing the creative potential of children and young people. A few days ago the drawing competition "Technologies that connect me to the world" was completed. The winners will receive their awards in June, said Deputy Minister Valery Borissov.

At the initiative of Minister Ivaylo Moskovski two more competitions are to be announced. The first is entitled "Nominate a friend or classmate for IT achievement". The competition targets children and young people aged 15-26 who have created original computer programs or inventions. The second competition is an essay contest entitled "What does the Internet give me and what it takes from me", which targets students up until the 12th grade. Both competitions are part of the events dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the founding of the International Telecommunication Union. Details on the competitions will be published on MTITC’s website next week.

The round table was attended by Kalin Kamenov, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Georgi Apostolov from the Safer Internet Center, Orlin Kouzov from the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Lubomir Tulev from Directorate General "Combating Organized Crime", Nina Naydenova, Associate for Youth and Sport at the National Assembly, Antoineta Koumanova from "Parents" Association, and Justine Thomas from "BG Site" Foundation.