Is there more peer violence today, are social networks safe for children and what we can do about that, were main topics at the panel discussion at regional Brave New Media Forum, organized by Deutche Welle Academy, with Commissioner for Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic and Tijana Milosevic, researcher at the National Anti-Bullying Center from Dublin as the main speakers.

Parents often think that their children are safe at home, in front of computer, but in fact they do not know if their child is a victim of online violence or maybe is abusing someone at that moment, Commissioner said, adding that it is very difficult to prevent spreading of hate speech and recordings of violence online. It is necessary to change the ways of communication, since young people adopt the behavioral patterns from their surroundings, which unfortunately contains great volume of rude vocabulary, insults, violence and glorification of material values. We need to give young people a personal example in order to change their behavior, because we cannot be disgusted by the music they listen to while at the same time we play songs that promote use of alcohol, watch too much TV, argue with neighbors or talk badly about the poor or people who are different from us, Jankovic said.

Commissioner also presented a recommendation on measures addressed to web portals in Serbia in order to prevent hate speech and violence on websites and social networks profiles, while Tijana Milosevic presented successful projects from foreign countries which are aimed at protecting children from peer violence on the Internet and whose experiences can be implemented in our country in the near future.

Discussion moderators were high-schoolers Filip Curkovic and Kristina Nikolic, young media activists, while conference was participated by great number of young people – acitivists, YouTubers, journalists, artists, influencers, as well as their older colleagues.