The Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, together with the Hungarian National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (NAIH) launches a programme consisting of interactive homeroom classes for secondary school pupils, entitled The Internet Won’t Forget! Programme details were presented by Monika Balatoni, Secretary of State for Social Relations, and Attila Péterfalvi, President of the Authority at the press conference on Thursday.

Monika Balatoni said: as of mid-January programme leaders will visit a total of thirty secondary schools all around the country, and hold interactive classes for about one hundred children at each school.

In the framework of these 90-minute classes, pupils will be faced, among others, with the violations of their rights they can be exposed to on the world wide web, or how they themselves can infringe data protection laws and other legislation. The motto “The Internet Won’t Forget!” was chosen to warn the youngsters of the problems they might face even years later, due to an inappropriately managed social networking site. A considerable part of employers do check the profile of a potential employee on the social networking sites, and many admitted that there were several applicants rejected due to what they had found there.

The Secretary of State reminded that the Parliament is currently debating its second legislative package on the rights of children, a pillar of which is child-friendly internet. In this the use of filtering tools offered free of charge by internet providers will be regulated, and the legislation will also require that in public institutions and libraries as of September 2014 these softwares prevent internet content potentially harmful for children and youth from reaching them.

She said that Facebook pages have 172 million visits a day, and 250 million photos and 864 hours of video recording are uploaded in just 24 hours. All around the world more internet-enabled iPhones are sold than children born, therefore, the Secretary of State urged to regulate the active presence of children on the world wide web.

In Hungary one of every five children uses the internet, and as of the average age of 10 and a half years all of them use the internet on their own, 70% of children never discuss the content seen there with their teachers or parents, the Secretary of State informed.

91% of children aged between 11 and 14 play online games, 82% use it for listening to music, and 77% lead their social life on the internet. According to a survey, one in every three children said to have been harassed on the internet by other children in the preceding three months, she added, however, only ten percent of these children talked to their parents about it.

The Secretary of State considers online harassment a tendency deserving the attention of the Ministry of Justice, that attention should be drawn not only to its dark sides but also to the opportunities it offers: data protection, promotion of personal rights, or the respect of intellectual property rights.
As she commented, e-harassment is a novel concept in legislation that should require a more pronounced attention in the future, but she also said that currently Hungarian law does not regulate cloud services and data management either. She added that a potential solution is being searched for all around Europe.

Attila Péterfalvi reported that his Authority considers the assistance offered to young people very important as threatening emails, hurtful comments or bullying on social networks provoked several cases of suicide also in Hungary.

He reported on the projects related to children’s rights conducted by the Authority so far, with the participation of psychologists and psychiatrists, apart from lawyers and IT professionals. He also introduced a publication on the rules of internet use for young people aged between 10 and 16. In this publication they present cases handled by the Authority and the police, and also draw the attention to questions such as: should parents publish pictures of their children on the internet?

In the course of an investigation by the Authority, as many as 7,500 minors were found on online dating sites. As for experiences gained, he said: at the request of the Authority operators immediately deleted these registrations, but there were some that refused to cooperate.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)