BELGACOM : Top managers Bellens and Rogge go back to school

Today, Didier Bellens and Philippe Rogge, the top men of Belgacom and Microsoft Belgium, gave training on Internet safety to pupils aged 9 to 12 at the Ecole du Centre and Mater Dei primary schools respectively, in Woluwe Saint Pierre. They were assisted by Justine Henin and Cédric Van Branteghem. Both the pupils and speakers were enthusiastic about the class. The training on Internet safety was clearly necessary. To be sure, children are very keen to discover the online world, but they underestimate the possible risks.

Besides the training given by the CEOs today, more than 160 volunteers from both companies will also try to improve the online safety of children. These volunteers will go to 115 schools across the country to teach children aged between 9 and 12 how to use the Internet safely.

Three years ago, Microsoft in cooperation with Child Focus organized the first "Safer Internet Training". Together, they reach over 10,000 pupils every year in more than 100 schools. Belgacom will join them as of this school year, for there is a great demand for training on Internet safety in schools.

"Children start to explore the Internet from the age of 9. They are very keen on surfing, but are not always aware of the possible risks, says Ellen Stassart of Child Focus. "We know it's not always easy for parents and teachers to explain to children how to use the Internet in a safe and responsible way, so we developed special training material for this project to help the volunteers from Microsoft and Belgacom. This way, we can teach children how to explore the online world safely. As Belgian Center for Safe Internet, Child Focus strives for shared responsibility among not only parents and teachers but also interest groups, the government, police, judicial authorities, and the "Internet industry".  We therefore strongly welcome this type of initiative in which companies such as Microsoft and Belgacom join forces.

The trainers talk to the children about their online activities (which began very early) in an interactive way. "Last year, Prof. Walrave conducted a study on the online behavior of young people and concluded that 90% of teens have at least one profile page", says Philippe Rogge, General Manager of Microsoft. "More than half of them check their page daily. According to the study, 93% of young people aged between 9 and 16 surf 1 hour per weekday, and twice as much in the weekend. Safety is very important because 40% of young people have had a bad experience online. Half of young people admit having problems finding the privacy settings on their page, and 43% of them even have difficulty understanding these settings. Additional training is therefore needed, which is why we participate in initiatives such as this.

"As a socially responsible telecom operator, we want to give as many people as possible access to our technology, says Didier Bellens, CEO of Belgacom. "We also want to protect users and inform them about the right way of using this new technology. In cooperation with Child Focus, we have been supporting efforts in the prevention field for many years. For instance, in 2010 we helped Child Focus distribute a teaching manual in schools, and today, about one hundred Belgacom employees, in cooperation with Microsoft, will go a step further by raising awareness among children about Internet safety and the responsible use of mobile phones.