“Likes and recognition in social media should never be more important than respect for friends and classmates – that’s true offline too,” said Dr. Thomas Kremer in conversation with moderator Bianca Nawrath and the audience. “Anyone who is depicted on a photo may also decide who gets to see it. I want to be able to count on that, even if the situation were reversed and it’s about my information.” The lively discussion showed that the internet with its many interaction possibilities is already an integral part of children and young people’s lives – and that its not a rare thing for them to find themselves in a situation that calls for responsible behavior.
Alongside a person’s right to decide what’s done with their image, all four workshops dealt with the challenges that children face with chat, on YouTube and in social media. The participants made their own comics and even animation films about how one may not share photos of others online without permission, about chat also adhering to basic rules of communication, about not blindly following social media influencers and about how private stuff doesn’t belong online.
The comics and animations delivered strong messages from kids to other kids, that showed how important respect and responsibility are the pillars of good cooperation and communication online.