Virginia Barcones delivers National Police Cyberexpert@ cards to 244 students from León

• The program, created by the Citizen Participation Unit of the CNP, aims to protect boys and girls through greater digital education • The Government delegate highlights that minors must be prepared for an increasingly hostile cyber environment as a result of an increase in the use of social networks and the appearance of new online shopping platforms • The 2022 report of the National Observatory of Technology and Society indicates that 96.6% of minors in Castilla y León aged between 10 and 15 have access to the internet, one of the highest rates in Spain

June 07, 2023.- The Government delegate in Castilla y León, Virginia Barcones, today presided over the ceremony of delivery of Cyberexpert@ cards to 244 students of Sixth of Primary of four schools in León. The program, created by the Citizen Participation Unit of the National Police, aims to protect boys and girls by improving their education in the use of new technologies.

Virginia Barcones has highlighted that prevention is one of the tools to effectively combat future crimes. This prevention policy includes the National Police ' s Cyberexpert@ programme. “During these courses you have been guided in the safe use of the Internet and social networks; you have been made aware of the importance of a good use of privacy on the Internet. You have learned terms like sexting, grooming or cyberbullying, how to prevent them and how to defend against them,” he said.

In this sense, he explained that today’s children are “digital natives” and hence the importance of educating them in the safe use of the Internet and RRSS. In this regard, he recalled that the report of 2022 of the National Observatory of Technology and Society indicates that in Castilla y León 96.6% of minors have access to the Internet, one of the highest rates in Spain. According to that report, from the age of 13 onwards, the number of children with mobile phones shoots above 85%.

“WhatsApp, Twitch, TIKTOK, YouTube are part of your daily life. It is a world, the digital world, with many virtues and that is not without risks,” said the government delegate. He said that the world of cybercrime is “increasingly hostile”, and added that almost 25% of the infringements committed last year in Castilla y León, 21,520 out of 87,000, were in a cyber environment.

The Ciberexpert@ program, created in 2016 and supported by Telefónica and the Cybervolunteers Foundation, consists of imparting 10 educational topics of special importance in the prevention and information of minors regarding the use of new technologies. That today’s schoolchildren avoid the future commission of criminal offenses due to ignorance, sensitize them about the indiscriminate use of the Internet and RRSS, as well as make them aware that ICT is a great advantage in different daily areas, but can also involve risk and disadvantages in case of misuse.

Within the topics we work: digital identity, netiquette, social networks and privacy, identity supplantation, cyberbullying, sexting, grooming, technoaddictions, inappropriate apps and games and other resources.

In the event that was held today, 244 students from four centers received their Cyberexpert@ card. In particular, 52 students from the Divine Pastora School, 76 students from the Maristas San José School, 71 students from the CEIP Quevedo and 45 from the CEIP Antonio Valbuena have attended.

In total, during the 2022-2023 academic year, the National Police has trained 1,103 students from 23 schools. 896 students from 19 schools in León capital, 118 students from two schools in San Andrés del Rabanedo and 89 children from two schools in Ponferrada.

The delegate of the Government has stressed that it is an “effort” of the Executive and National Police to reach an increasing number of minors with the Cyberexpert@ program, a good example being the increase of participants that the program has reached in the province of León. Thus, in 2019, 125 students from two educational centers took part; in 2020, 10 centers and 428 schools; in 2021, 16 centers and 728 minors and in 2022, 20 centers and 1028 colleges.

The Government delegate has meant the importance of institutional representatives, educational centers, teachers and parents working together in the training of minors on the virtues and risks of the Internet. “We can’t stop insisting to our children on the importance of looking both ways as they cross a street, how to feed themselves or speak well and yet ignore the fact that they are exposed to other risks at the click of a button,” he concluded.