European Award for Best Content for Kids - national competition in the Czech Republic

As in the year 2011, the Czech National Safer Internet Centre was very glad to participate in the European Award for Best Content For Kids. The main goal of this contest is to point out interesting web pages, targeting youth and beginning internet users and also encouraging young producers as well as commercial companies to create internet content especially for this target group of users.

Nowadays children and young people are carrying with them increasingly powerful devices and are online non-stop. The most common activities are linking to social network sites, building their own communities and creating and sharing content with other users. Although the biggest and most active target group of internet users are young people, internet content is mostly focused on adults. This kind of paradox of the digital age seems to be similar with other countries within the European Union with no exception for the Czech environment. For this reason participating in this contest is big challenge for our organisation, most importantly to highlight demand of supporting and creating positive content for youth and children. The amount of internet sites in Czech language focusing to youth is insufficient.

The national part of the contest was launched in the beginning of June 2013. We have used for promotion primarily web sites of the Czech National Safer Internet Centre and also the newsletter, which is published and disseminated monthly. Information about the European Award was also presented in the news service of the channel TV UPC. In the framework of this contest and also for providing rules and recommendations for creating positive web pages the Czech National Safer Internet Centre runs website with the name Pro deti (For children), http://prodeti.ncbi.cz. On this website users can find all the information regarding the contest: rules, categories and parameters. This information can help creators and developers fulfil criteria for positive content and also rank content as positive website suitable for youth and children. Motivating and encouraging the web companies to join this contest is the field of activity, where is still lot of work. Without explanation of why is the positive content for youth and children serious issue, it is very difficult to convince especially commercial companies to be part of this contest and also to support the whole philosophy.

The winner of the national part of the contest is website „Webik Českého rozhlasu“, http://www.rozhlas.cz/webik/portal/. 

On this website young users can choose between listening to the spoken fairy tales, playing easy online games, creating pictures using easy creative applications, reading interesting articles about nature, trying to cook simple food according to online recipes, learning English by using simple online learning tools, and writing short stories from their lives to publish for other users. From our point of view, Webik Ceskeho rozhlasu is one of the best examples of what a website with positive content for children should look like. This winning website was also the first one, which was nominated for the European part of the contest.

The other websites from the Czech internet, which are nominated for the European part of the contest, are following:

1. ABC (http://www.abicko.cz/kategorie/1312/casopis-abc) – the website for all fans of the printed magazine for teenagers with name ABC Magazine. It extends printed content with interactive forms of online entertainment. 
2. Bejbypank (http://www.bejbypank.cz/) – the website for supporting music aimed especially to children. Its albums are full of amusing songs for young children. 
3. Dějiny českého národa (http://dejiny.ceskatelevize.cz) – interactive, graphically well done website made by Czech TV. The website teaches the Czech history in useful and entertaining way. 
4. Dětské stránky (http://www.detskestranky.cz/) – the website aimed at child upbringing and development. It also offers parents a lot of opportunities to spend time online in a useful way. 
5. Dětský web (http://www.knih-pt.cz/detskyweb/) – the website created for supporting younger readers. Aside from the usual book catalogue, it contains advice, online games and writing lessons. 
6. Folmíci: komiksy, soutěže, web (http://www.folmici.cz/) – Folmici are cartoon characters, which go through lot of interesting stories. Apart from the website contains a lot of other amusing content, for instance wallpaper, interactive games etc. 
7. Prevence kyberšikany (http://www.kybersikana.eu/) – the website Cybercrime prevention brings a lot of information about how to use the internet in a safe way. It shows a lot of tips, tricks and the best practices how to avoid harmful content and behaviour online. 
8. Rádio Domino (http://www.radiodomino.cz/) – the website Radio domino contains online catalogue magazines for children, online newspapers and online streamed broadcast for youth. 
9. Rostík (http://www.rostik.cz) – the website Rostik is focused to young readers. It tries to catch children’s interest and bring them back to reading books instead of spending time on Facebook. Apart from the book catalogue, the website contains online games and fairy tales. 
10. Velryba Varyba (http://www.varyba.cz/) – the website Varyba is made by a primary school in the city of Karlovy Vary (western part of Bohemia). This partly UGC website supports young backpackers. It organises amusing outdoor activities and invites other schools to join. 
11. Sotkoviny (http://sotkoviny.cz/) – the website is focused on young journalists, readers and writers from basic schools. The main goal of the website is to develop reader's literacy and creativity in the target group of children and youth. Children can get feedback from their community. There are also three e-learning courses available.