Digital Agenda: "Best children's online content" competition winners

Later this year, the Commission will launch a new initiative to help make the Internet a safer place, while empowering youngsters to learn their rights and responsibilities online and make the most of new technologies whilst respecting themselves and others. The Commission will also continue to stimulate growth and visibility of good quality content online for children, promoting language and cultural diversity and helping parents and teachers to gain confidence in the benefits of new technologies for children.

Winners in the "Youth" category

1st prize - www.palkan.de - is a "pupils' magazine“ online portal which focuses on learning, communication among peers and information about current events. It has been created by pupils of the 5th and 6th grade of the Bruno-H.-Bürgel-Schule secondary school in Germany.

2nd prize - www.habbolive.nl - is a site dedicated to the virtual world Habbo Hotel. Habbolive gives the Habbo-fan all the latest information about what is going on in Habbo and offers games for children. Habbo was created by Wim Borgerdijn (14), Kimberly Nijzink (15) and Mark Bruil (15) from The Netherlands.

3rd prize - www.superpilot.cba.pl - is a site that addresses issues of general safety and online safety and provides general educational aids and resources. It was created by Aleksandra Anna Klimczak (16) and Wojciech Wieslaw Fron (16) from Poland.

Winners in the "Adult" category

1st prize - www.hetklokhuis.nl - is a fun and educational site with many possibilities to create content, for example via the SketchMaker and GameMaker. It was created by Hetklokhuis, the Dutch educational television program for children.

2nd prize - www.kinderzeitmaschine.de - is a website on the history of humankind, created by Sabine Gruler, Kirsten Wagner and Bianca Bonacci, a private initiative from Germany.

3rd prize - www.ketnet.be - is a website which aims to enable children to be creative, for example to draw or make quizzes. It was created by the Flemish children’s TV-channel Ketnet.

Background information

The best content online competition was launched in October 2010. Between November 2010 and April 2011 the competition ran at national level in Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, and Spain.

The winners of the national competitions were nominated to compete for the European Award. A European jury, led by Professor Sonia Livingstone from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and coordinator of the EUKidsOnline project, selected the winners of the European Awards.

For more information:

Nominees for the European Award for Best Children's Online Content

More information on the EUKidsOnline survey:

www.eukidsonline.net

More information on the selection and award criteria of the competition:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/events/competition/index_en.htm

Producing and providing online content for children and young people- an inventory

Safer Internet Programme:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/index_en.htm

Digital Agenda website:

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/index_en.htm

Neelie Kroes' website: http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/kroes/

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