On February 6, 2008, at the initiative of Microsoft Bulgaria, Bulgarian child portal Az-deteto.com and the Blagodeyatel Foundation, a round table discussion dedicated to the problems of child safety on the internet was held. The round table was organised in the framework of the Children Safety on the Internet campaign.

The discussion was opened by Shirin Mestan, chairperson of the State Agency for Child Protection (SACP). Representatives of Microsoft Bulgaria, the State Agency for Information Technologies and Communications (SAITC), the Education Ministry, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC), the Potrebitel BG (Consumer BG) Association and the Council for Safe Internet all presented their points of view on internet safety and shared good practices.

Participants in the discussion were shown a short fragment of the I Surf Safely film, which had been produced as part of the campaign. The film will premiere on February 12, 2008, international Safer Internet Day, at 7.30pm at Sofia's Dom na Kinoto (House of Cinema). The entrance will be free.

Special guests of the discussion were Andrei Hadjivassilev, director of the film, and Victoria Kerin, who is more widely known as Viki from Star Academy and is the face of the Children Safely on the Internet campaign. The main character of the film, young Iliya Lassin, also took part in the discussion sharing his experiences from the film as well as his internet habits.

A survey carried out among Sofia children aged 6 to 14 shows that all of them used the Internet. Most of the parents say they control their children and half of them admit they have concerns about their child using the internet. Over 90 per cent of parents confess they do not have special software  installed in their home PC to prevent their children from visiting unwanted websites.

We owe it to our children to make the internet a neverending story full of adventure, instead of letting it be a jungle posing different threats to them, Shirin Mestan said referring to Michael Ende's The Neverending Story fantasy novel.

Children safely on the Internet was one of Microsoft's main priorities, not only because it was logical for a technological company, but also because as parents themselves, they were responsible for the safety of their children and for them being well-informed, head of Microsoft Bulgaria Ognyan Kiryakov said.

“What happens to our children when they sit in front of the computer should concern the entire society. The SAITC supports at institutional level all national and European initiatives and projects combating harmful and illegal internet content. Since the founding of SAITC, we have been actively participating in several campaigns that popularised safe usage of the world wide web and that are an excellent example of uniting state institutions and non-governmental sector's efforts in the name of children. The Children Safely on the Internet campaign under the initiative of Microsoft fits well in SAITC's policy to constantly teach and popularise the skills and techniques for safe internet usage,” Neli Stoyanova, director of SAITC's Information Society and Information Technologies directorate said.

Justine Toms, editor-in-chief of the Bulgarian portal Az-deteto.com said that according to their research children between 9 and 15 years-old were most active ones online and that 38 per cent of Bulgarian children who used the internet were online every day. She said that 81 per cent of children logged on to the internet from their homes. Toms announced that according to parents the biggest threats to children online were malevolent strangers, websites with inappropriate contents, games featuring violence, among others. Georgi Apostolov of the Council for Safe Internet said pedophilia was one of the most dangerous internet threats and mentioned some new ones emerging, such as identity theft.

Orlin Kouzov of the Education Ministry said the ministry was planning to create schools for parents to educate them on how to make their child's stay online safe. A child has to be taught how to swim in virtual space, he said. 

As part of the Children Safely on the Internet campaign more than 1700 children have already submitted their proposals for an eighth rule on how to surf safely, which is to be added to the existing seven rules. Each month three children who have submitted their proposals would win prizes from Microsoft, Az-deteto.com and the Blagodeyatel Foundation. In May 2008 the child whose eighth rule will officially be added to the other seven will be announced and will be awarded a laptop. The Eighth Rule for a Safe Internet game can be found at the site of Az-deteto.com