News Overview 2020

Videos of young people deliberately creating an electrical short circuit are currently circulating on youth-oriented platforms under the name "Outlet Challenge". Using a charger and a coin, an electric shock is generated at an outlet, which can have fatal consequences. It can also cause fire and property damage to the electrical system or the entire building.

The German Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) is issuing a press release on the occasion of Safer Internet Day 2020 in which it points out the negative effects of excessive media consumption.

Children and young people repeatedly encounter hate speech on social networks. Educational professionals can make a decisive contribution to enabling children and young people to deal with this in a reflective way. The ability to actively counter speech is an important component of extremism prevention. At a counter-speech symposium organized by jugendschutz.net, concepts were discussed and projects presented. A conference volume has now been published, in which all the results have been recorded.

The German Children's Fund publishes a representative survey of parents on the protection of children and young people from harmful media and concludes that providers of online content should be held more accountable.

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Since the beginning of January, there have been new revelations about the Cambridge Analytica scandal on Twitter. The company had obtained data from Facebook users in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election and then tried to influence their voting behavior. The documents now published are said to prove that this and similar practices endangering democracy are still being used worldwide to influence elections.

For children and young people, social media stars on Instagram, YouTube & Co are important role models today. Whether it's picture poses, outfits or travel destinations - influencers dictate what's hot. In keeping with the motto of Safer Internet Day on February 11, 2020, "Idols on the Net. Influencers & Opinion power" our new video series #Parentsinformed gives an insight into the topic. The video series was produced by Isabel Hörder, a student at Heidelberg University of Education, as a cooperative project with klicksafe.