The Safer Internet Day, established under the initiative of the European Commission in 2004 within the framework of the "Safer Internet" programme, aims at initiating and propagating actions for the safety of youth and children in the Internet. In Poland, the SID has been celebrated since 2005.

New technologies are an inherent element of the modern world. We use them in work, learning and entertainment. Popularity of new media is particularly visible when it comes to children and youth. For them, Internet is an extremely important space, creating a possibility to express their own opinions, develop their interests or establish new contacts. As popularity of new technologies grows, young people more and more freely surf the web. They transfer there their private data and pictures, publish their movies, they want to be popular and well-liked, they want to become known in the net. Unfortunately, they sometimes forget that an outwardly innocent joke in the Internet, lack of prudence and care about their privacy and privacy of other people, may eventually cause harm to someone. Therefore, during this year celebrations of the SID, we want to sensitise the youngest, as well as parents and professionals working with children, to the protection of privacy in the Internet. Spot of the campaign „Think B4 U post!” shows possible consequences of imprudent publishing private content in the net. The aim of the campaign is to teach young net surfers how to reasonably and responsibly publish information online, as well as how to respect their own privacy and privacy of other people.

An international nature of the Safer Internet Day is extremely important for the very idea of this event. A European-wide campaign “Think B4 U post!”, which will be inaugurated on 9 February 2010, is just one of many international aspects of the SID. Beside that, 27 national centres of the “Safer Internet” programme, grouped within the Insafe Association, encourages schools, non-governmental organisations, firms and private persons to support the SID by organising local initiatives for the safety of young net surfers. The Insafe Association has also been preparing educational proposals for schools throughout Europe, inter alia a quiz concerning media education and safety in the Internet. Last year, youth and children from Poland accounted for nearly half of the European quiz participants.

There are several hundred different events taking place in our country each year on the occasion of the SID. They promote principles of the online safety (e.g. educational activities, happenings, school newsletters, programmes aired by school broadcasting centres, informational campaigns, competitions). Local initiatives for the safety of young net surfers can be registered via form available on the www.dbi.pl website. There were almost one thousand such initiatives registered on the SID website last year.

Spot and other information concerning the SID are available on the website of the Polish Centre of the Programme “Safer Internet” – www.dbi.pl. A press conference, accompanied by fairs and a forum dedicated to the activities for the improvement of safety of the youngest net surfers, will take place in the University Library in Warsaw. For persons who will not be able to take part in the SID 2010 conference personally, NASK will provide a streaming live transmission available on the Safer Internet Day website www.dbi.pl.