The "Coding Tomorrow" Project Will Provide Internet Safety Training to 15,000 Children

"CODING TOMORROW" WILL PROVIDE INTERNET SAFETY TRAINING TO CHILDREN

Implemented by Vodafone Turkey Foundation and Habitat Association, the "Coding Tomorrow" project will provide internet safety training to children after parents. The online training will start in March and offer extensive information on many issues, including the importance of personal data, cyberbullying, and digital footprint, to 15,000 children aged 7-14 across Turkey.

The "Coding Tomorrow" project, implemented byVodafone Turkey Foundation and Habitat Association, accelerated internet security training. The access to internet security training, first launched for parents last year, has been extended to include children. During the online training, which will start in March, volunteer trainers will provide 15,000 children aged 7-14 across Turkey with extensive information on many issues, including the importance of personal data, cyberbullying, and digital footprint. With around 2-hour training, the project aims to raise children's awareness about cyber security. Internet safety training will not only be available to each child who receives coding training as part of the "Coding Tomorrow" but also be held as a separate session. Internet safety training can also be accessed via yarinikodlayanlar.com/en/.

Mr. Hasan Süel, the Chair of Vodafone Turkey Foundation , stated:

"As Vodafone Turkey Foundation and Habitat Association, we eagerly continue our 'Coding Tomorrow' project, which we launched six years ago to raise generations ready for the digital future. Until today, we have given coding training to over 226,000 children in 81 provinces. Moreover, we also expand the scope of our project every year. We organize family meetings to improve the digital competencies of parents as well as our children. This year, we have decided to give internet safety training, which we first provided to parents last year, to our children as well. We believe that we need to show our children not only the positive effects of the digital world but also its negative sides that we should protect ourselves from. Ensuring digital technologies' safe and positive use is of great significance, especially for children and youngsters. In this regard, we believe building awareness about cyber security at an early age is critical. With the online training starting in March, we will provide our children with training on many topics, including the importance of personal data, cyberbullying, and digital footprints. We will also make an announcement to the students who are already receiving our 'Coding Tomorrow' training to invite them to internet safety training. For the upcoming period, we aim to provide this training to 15,000 children via the 'Coding Tomorrow' volunteers."

Mr. Sezai Hazır, the Board Chair of Habitat Association , also stated:

We feel right happy and proud of constantly expanding the scope of our Coding Tomorrow project, which we implemented with the collaboration of the Vodafone Turkey Foundation and touches the lives of thousands of children. The pandemic increased the time children spend in the digital world dramatically. In this regard, we are aware that we should to teach our children about the dangers of the digital world besides its bright sides. Accordingly, we plan to reach children by expanding the target audience of the internet safety training we started for parents as part of our project. After launching the training in March, we, via our volunteer trainers, will teach our children about the problems they may encounter in the digital world and what precautions they should take. That said, we will continue to prepare our children for every corner of the future digital world. "

The goal: 15,000 parents

As part of the "Coding Tomorrow" project, parent meetings were organized last year to increase parents' digital competencies, offering them training on 21st-century competencies, resources they can utilize in the digital world, and critical matters to be paid attention to. Participating parents note that they are now, thanks to this training, more aware of many issues they did not know about in the digital world. Until today, the project has given internet safety training to 2067 parents. Moreover, it is aimed to reach 15,000 parents in the forthcoming period.

The project has reached over 226,000 children

Within the "Coding Tomorrow" project, children between 7-14 across Turkey receive theoretical and practical training by volunteer trainers on various subjects, including the introduction to programming, algorithm logic, application development, storytelling, and game development. Our training helps our children understand programming, work to bring out their creativity, create their imaginary worlds, and produce their games. As part of the "Coding Tomorrow", which has reachedover 226,000 children in 81 provinces to date, 6,6 million TRY of social value was obtained in one year, and each investment of 1 TRY for the project yielded a social return of 4,4 TRY.