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cause “it has been seen that foreign language acqui-
sition has been especially effective at early stages in
child development. Thus, it has been argued that
young people should learn secure IT use and cyber
safety early in their careers” (Zepf, 2013). Therefore,
it is important that young people are being exposed to
cyber security principles that will protect them and
their environment from danger experiences. Thus,
this paper proposes a cyber safety model for primary
and secondary schools in Mozambique aimed at rais-
ing awareness, education and promote a cyber secu-
rity culture.
2 ANALYSIS OF CHILDREN
CYBER SAFETY INITIATIVES
2.1 Developed Countries
In developed countries several initiatives such as cy-
ber safety awareness campaigns, games and intro-
duction of cyber safety topics in school curricu-
lum have been implementing to keep children and
young people safe online. In USA, despite the exis-
tence of cyber safety programs in elementary schools
other programs have been developing by the govern-
ment and also public/private sectors. The National
Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) is a public/private
partnership responsible for the staysafeonline project
www.staysafeonline.org/ and the C-SAVE, a vol-
unteer program focused on young people to teach
them cyber security, cyber safety and cyberethics.
Moreover, students have the possibility to use sup-
port materials to help them on their online ex-
periences (NCSA, 2017). In 2009, the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security (DHS) developed the
“Stop.Think.Connect” initiative (Zepf, 2013). It was
developed to promote cyber security awareness in
USA targeting several groups including children and
young people.
In European Union (EU) , the European Strategy
for a Better Internet for Children has been a central
reference document regarding children cyber safety
since its publication in 2012. The strategy has four
main pillars (1) stimulating quality content online for
young people, (2) stepping up awareness and empow-
erment, (3) creating a safe environment for children
online and (4) fighting against child sexual abuse and
exploitation. It addresses several actions to be un-
dertaken by the European Commission (EC), mem-
ber states and whole industry value chain. Further-
more, online safety was included as a specific topic in
the school curriculum of 23 education systems across
Europe (EC, 2012). Moreover, the EU also launched
the Happy Onlife (HOL) game and toolkit “to build
and develop safety and knowledge on internet use,
overuse and abuse” (EU, 2016). The game aims to
raise awareness about the risks and opportunities of
the internet and promote best online practices. It tar-
gets children, parents and teachers. The toolkit also
contains “a project booklet with a collection of ed-
ucational activities promoting shared experiences of
the digital world among teachers, parents and chil-
dren between eight and twelve years” (EU, 2016).
In 2010, the United Kingdom (UK) Council for
Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) was established. It
is a group composed by more than 200 organizations
from government, law, academic, industry and charity
sectors working in partnership to help keep children
safe online (Gov.UK, 2017). The UKCCIS education
group has conducted severals activities such as pro-
duction of a guidance for schools governors to help
governing boards support their school leaders to keep
children safe online, advices for schools and colleges
related to online incidents and creation of guide for
parents related to safer use of social media (Gov.UK,
2017). Moreover, Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
in UK have adopted the code of practice on parental
control that promotes active choice where customers
are asked at the moment of purchase whether they
want to have parental controls and offer them free of
charge (EC, 2012). In Estonia, almost all the daily life
activities rely on internet. Thus, the Estonian Safer
Internet Centre is responsible for promoting safer and
better use of internet and mobile technologies among
children and young people. It is also responsible
for conducting activities such as organize seminars
and training sessions for children, parents, teachers
and social workers, compile and publish training and
awareness raising materials for them and disseminate
informative and educational material nationally and
internationally (ESIC, 2017).
In Germany, klicksafe (EU, 2017) is an awareness
campaign that promotes media literacy and adequate
handling of the internet and new media. The goal is to
make public more conscious of the importance of safe
internet use for children and adolescents. The project
targets parents, educators, teachers, social service and
youth workers. It also provides education material for
teachers and online seminars for multipliers as well as
information material for parents. Several stakehold-
ers such as Deutsche Telekom and some governmen-
tal sectors such as die Bundesregierung, Bundespruef-
stelle fuer jungendgefaehrdende Medien and Bunde-
samt fuer Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI)
sponsor the initiative (EU, 2017). Moreover, a certi-
fied youth protection software can be used to prevent
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