Cyberethics Parent’s Association presentation in Limassol Primary

After being invited by the Parents’ Association of the 10th Primary School Xalkoutsa in Limassol, Mrs. Georgina Shitta, Cyberethics coordinator, Mr. Panikos Iakovou from CYTA and Savvas Simaiou from the Cyber crime unit of the Police, gave a presentation regarding Internet safety on the 28th of April 2010.

The teachers, parents and their children listened on as the presenters explained how to keep themselves and their children safe while surfing online. This generated much discussion at the end of the presentations since most people consider the Internet to be a source of danger rather than as a source of knowledge and democratic expression, which the parents agreed with and wanted to become more informed about how to keep their children’s Internet use productive rather than harmful.

The school’s officials extended their gratitude for the presentation and want to organize such a presentation again to the pupils of the school.

Safer Internet Day 2010 Conferences

On February 9th, Safer Internet Day 2010, the Cyprus Safer Internet Center organized a conference in Nicosia to celebrate the day. First presenter at this event was Mrs. Goula Frangkou, delegate of the office of Commissioner for personal data collection, which discussed about personal data, laws, rights and obligations. Second presenter was Dr. Michael Vafopoulos, coordinator of the post-graduate program in Web science at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki that discussed about social networks, options and opportunities in real life. Following Dr. Vafopoulos was Mr. Nikos Vasilakos, reporter and counselor for www, representing Internet Now! and president of the Association of Hellenic Internet Users. After the presentations followed a discussion between the presenters, the audience and a panel of six students (2 from the Cyprus children parliament) coordinated by Mr. Yiannis Laouris that led to a very interesting and productive discussion. In detail the children that took part in the panel discussion were: Christos Dimitrof (B’ Technical school Limassol), Stefania Charalambous (Gymnasium Kokkinochorion), George Charalambous ( Lyceum Dasoupolis), Dimitra Katechaki (Gymnasium Faneromenis Larnaca), Anthoulla Fella (President of the Children’s Parliament) and Tasos Stylianou (Children’s Parliament member).


On February 10th an English speaking Safer Internet Day conference took place at the CYTA amphitheatre. First speaker was Dr. Michael Vafopoulos, coordinator of the post-graduate program in Web science at the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki that discussed about social networks, options and opportunities in real life. Following Dr. Vafopoulos was Mr. Michalis Kitromilides from the office of Commissioner for personal data collection, which discussed about personal data, laws, rights and obligations. After the presentations followed a discussion between the presenters, the audience and the children’s panel coordinated by Mr. Yiannis Laouris that led to a very interesting and productive discussion. In detail the children that took part in the panel discussion were: Charalambos Mouzouris (GC School), Melissa Soukiouroglou (GC School), Rania Kouros (English school), Maria Kountouri (Pascal English school), Savvas Kourtis (American Academy Larnaca), Nicholas-Stafenos Helas (Children’s Parliament member) and Fay Wonepfer (Children’s Parliament member).

CyberEthics meet with the pupils of the Aradippou Primary School

Georgina Siitta, coordinator of the CyberEthics Internet Awareness Center, and Lawrence Kalogreades, coordinator of the Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline, were invited by the Aradippou Primary School in order to give a presentation about various issues regarding Internet safety and ethical behaviour. About 70 children listened on as Lawrence and Georgina explained the benefits and hazards of the Internet, and how the children themselves can learn to behave safely and responsibly while interacting online. The children were excited by the subject matter and had alot to say about their own usage of the Internet and their own concerns or experiences while online. The concluding comment was that in the case of the children, it is their responsibility to behave sensibly and respectfully while on the Internet, and also to be willing to act as teachers for their parents some times in order to get their parents better acquainted with their own children's changing world and social attitudes.

CyberEthics at Radio Pafos 93.7FM

Lawrence Kalogreades, coordinator of the Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline, was invited to discuss safer Internet issues on the Radio Pafos program 'Προχωράμε Μαζί', hosted by Olga Ioannou. The two discussed the importance of understanding the Internet as a beneficial tool which however can contain hidden hazards for the inexperienced. With this in mind, the program focused on the responsibility of the parents to become educated in ICT in order to be capable of giving proper advice and guidance to their children, as well as avoiding hazards themselves. The discussion attracted the attention of the audience who called in and asked questions and also challenged the position that parents can make a difference when it comes to a child's behaviour on the Internet. As a concluding remark, Lawrence stated that parents should not turn a blind-eye to their children's activities on the Internet, but should not spy on their children either. With that in mind, a spirit of collaboration and mutual understanding should be developed in order for the youngsters to feel comfortable discussing these issues with their parents, not only because they feel that it is acceptable but also because they need to feel that their parents are also knowledgable in the subject.

Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline coordinator at Aradippou Primary School

After being invited by the Parents’ Association of the Aradippou Primary School, Lawrence Kalogreades, coordinator of the Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline, gave a presentation regarding Internet safety.

The parents listened on as Lawrence explained how to keep their children safe but also how to give them enough liberty in order to not be suppressive. This view generated much discussion since most people consider the Internet to be a source of danger rather than as a source of knowledge and democratic expression, which the parents agreed with and wanted to become more informed about how to keep their children’s Internet use productive rather than harmful.

The school’s officials extended their gratitude for the presentation and have already invited Lawrence back in order to give the same presentation directly to the pupils of the school.

Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline coordinator at Lykeio Kykkou B’

Lawrence Kalogreades, the coordinator of the Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline, had the opportunity to give a presentation to the students of the Lykeio Kykkou B’, in Nicosia, Cyprus. A total of about 70 students were present, who eagerly participated in the discussion and in fact had many valid points and questions regarding Internet use and their own perceptions about how to use the Internet properly. Due to the student’s requests, Lawrence focused the discussion on how to stay protected from phishing scams, keeping one’s personal details safe, and how to make sure that a student can stay safe while on Social Networking Sites.

CyberEthics at “Elefthero Vima” on CyBC Radio 1

Lawrence Kalogreades, coordinator of the Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline, and Yiannis Laouris, director of the CyberEthics Awareness Node, were the guest speakers at the CyBC Radio 1 discussion show “Elefthero Vima”.

Yiannis and Lawrence were given the opportunity to inform the public about the role of CyberEthics in regards to Internet safety in Cyprus and how its role has evolved over the years into including a Helpline, Hotline, and also running relevant research projects on Internet use and video game addiction. The discussion also covered popular issues such as the use of Instant Messenger programs and their dangers, how to protect one’s computer from viruses, to how to use Social Networking Sites safely. The discussion ran from 7:25 until 8:25pm.

CyberEthics at CyBC-1’s early morning programme, “Epta Deka”

Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline coordinator, Lawrence Kalogreades, and the director of the CyberEthics Awareness Node, Yiannis Laouris, were invited to the CyBC-1 early morning program “Epta Deka” on Tuesday the 20th of April.

Yiannis and Lawrence discussed with their hosts the activities of the CyberEthics project as a whole, the role of the national Helpline and Hotline in dealing with Internet related dangers and distress, and how parents can best inform their children as well as themselves about how to stay safe and most of all productive while on the Internet.

Cyprus Safer Internet Helpline coordinator at the Youth Board Multimedia Center in Paphos

Lawrence Kalogreades gave an hour long presentation to a group of children, teenagers, and parents at the Youth Board Multimedia Center in Paphos on Saturday the 17th of April, 2010. Lawrence explained to his audience his role of being the coordinator of the Cyprus Internet Helpline, as well as how CyberEthics can help them with advice and guidance on how to stay safe on the Internet.

Associates of Paphos TV were also present, who filmed the presentation and also interviewed Lawrence in order to highlight the importance of CyberEthics’ work in keeping the youth of today safe.

Interested in learning Turkish or Greek with your mobile phone?

Are you interested in learning Turkish or Greek with your mobile phone? If yes, then the project entitled 'Intercultural Dialogue & Linguistic Diversity via MobLang’ – a EU funded project with partner organizations from Cyprus, Northern Ireland, Basque Country, Greece and the UK is just for you!

Specifically, we aim at teaching basic language skills, such as survival phrases, short dialogues, numbers etc through the use of mobile phones.

In Cyprus, we will teach basic Greek to Turkish Cypriots and basic Turkish to Greek Cypriots, respectively. We hope to help bridge the gap and therefore reinforce dialogue between both communities through the acquisition of basic conversational language skills.

At the moment we are in the process of designing the language curricula. And here is where we need your input! In order to find out what you want and how exactly you want to learn a language, we developed a short online survey for your input. We appreciate if you take 5-10 minutes of your time to answer the few questions that will guide us in our curricula development. We need your opinion in order to create a language course that you will want to use in a few months time for free!

The survey is available in English, Greek and Turkish. Please click on the link below to chose your preferred language:

Turkish: http://www.unipark.de/uc/MobLang_Cyprus_Tr/
Greek: http://www.unipark.de/uc/MobLang_Cyprus_Gr/
English: http://www.unipark.de/uc/MobLang_Cyprus_Eng/

Thank you very much for your support!

For more information on the project please refer to our website: www.moblang.eu

Launching Event of the “MDGs - Media for Development Goals” Project

Future Words Center and the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, European University Cyprus hosted University students from Cyprus at the Launching Event of the “MDGs - Media for Development Goals” Project on 21 April 2010 at the Amphitheatre Delta, European University Cyprus.

The project aims to involve Student Youth in the development of multimedia tools to promote Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

During the Launch Event University students had an opportunity to learn more about the scope of the project and about how they can become involved. There are multiple trainings focused on using new media as an innovative tool for the promotion of development issues. The trainings will take place in Italy, Peru, Kenya and Poland in summer 2010. Two University students from Cyprus will be selected to participate in the trainings on behalf of the project and then become multipliers of the knowledge they have gained.

Petra Daniel, Senior Instructor, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, European University Cyprus opened the Launch Event.

Students then had the opportunity to hear from Kongnso L. Cyrille, Sec. General of the International Students Association (ISAC) who inspired the youth leaders with his speech “How do the MDGs relate to youth leaders in Cyprus?”.

Nicolina Markidou, Global Education Unit, Future Worlds Center then gave a presentation of the “MDGs - Media for Development Goals” Project which was followed by a question and answer session.

For more information about the project and to obtain an application form please click here

Future Worlds Center, a Cypriot Non-Governmental Organisation based in Nicosia is a partner in the project: “MDGs - Media for Development Goals” (contract no. DCI-NSA ED/2009/202-170) that is being coordinating with two other European countries (Poland, Czech Republic).


“The project MDGs – Media for Development Goals is funded by the European Union. The contents of this publication is the sole responsibility of Future Worlds Center and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union."

FWC coordinates Cyprus' first European conference on Development Education

Future Worlds Center, welcomed teachers and NGO leaders to Cyprus for the island’s first European conference on Development Education. Participants from Cyprus, Scotland, Ireland, Bulgaria, France, Poland, England, Slovenia and Lithuania have started to gather for 3 days in Limassol to discuss opportunities and challenges faced integrating a global perspective into schools across Europe. A representative of the Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus opened the conference with an address to the participants Thursday morning. Educational authorities from the Lithuanian Ministry of Education and the General Teaching Council of Scotland will also address the attendees.

Interactive workshops for participants will be conducted in parallel over the entirety of the conference as well as a Structured Dialogue with relevant educational stakeholders. These will help participants exchange experiences, learn what is happening in other EU member states and create new links among teachers Europe-wide.

“Global Education is very important for Cyprus and teachers here are very responsive”, said Kerstin Wittig Future World Center’s head of Global Education and Coordinator of the project “Accessing Development Education” who is hosting the European conference in Cyprus.

“Development Education is still a fairly new concept in new member states and the European Commission promotes the idea by supporting NGOs who work in this area. The Ministry of Education and Culture in Cyprus has been very supportive of these activities and the project itself”, she said

The EU funded project “Accessing Development Education” has been active for the last two years and engages educators and schools in Development Education activities and equips them with relevant training and materials, thus making them promoters and multipliers of national campaigns and initiatives that aim to create awareness about development issues and global interdependencies.

The project is coordinated by Future Worlds Center (Cyprus) and implemented in partnership with Scotdec (Scotland), Youth Career and Advising Centre (Lithuania), KADE (Ireland) and C.E.G.A. (Bulgaria). The conference will run from Thursday 8 April to Saturday 10 April at the Navarria Hotel in Limassol.

FWC at 3rd COST International Training School

"Dr Yiannis Laouris and Lawrence Kalogreades attended the 3rd COST International Training School on Toward Autonomous, Adaptive, and Context-Aware Multimodal Interfaces: Theoretical and Practical Issues, which took place in Caserta, Italy. The training school took place on the 15-19th of March, 2010.

Lawrence Kalogreades documented the work he is doing in collaboration with Dr Antonis Loizou at the CNTI/FWC Neuroscience Lab through his presentation entitled "The effects of violent gaming on psycho-physiological and electrophysiological measures of stress". An abstract of the presentation follows:

The primary aim of this study is to investigate whether experienced video‐game players demonstrate fewer physiological stress markers (i.e., elevated heart‐rate, respiration, blood pressure, ventilation, and forehead muscle conductivity) in comparison to inexperienced gamers. With the aid of the Nexus 10 biofeedback recording hardware, the physiological responses, as well as integrated brain wave activity of the subjects will be recorded while playing violent and non‐violent video games. This psychophysiological multimodal data profile will be correlated with their Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory personality profiles as well as the type of game being played."

FWC hosts Conflict Resolution Students from USA

In continuance of FWC's long collaboration with graduate students interested in Peace Building FWC hosted a student group from American University in Washington D.C. Eleftherios A. Michael, Cyprus native and Assistant Professor and Academic Director at the Peace and Conflict Resolution Program from American University in Washington D.C. (http://observer.american.edu/washingtonsemester/peacecr/index.cfm) was in Cyprus again this year with 25 students for a study visit about bi-communal activities and activists from the 19th to the 27th of March 2010.

The students met with political leaders island-wide and also heard from civil society groups currently coordinating bi-communal projects in Cyprus. FWC presented it's "Jumpstart" project, and students also heard about the "Cyprus Network for Youth Development" of which FWC is a member and also from the Cyprus Community Media Centre (CCMC) staff about all the exciting trainings and productions happening. FWC is a member of the Management Committee of CCMC.

FWC attends Concord's "How to translate advocacy into media"

FWC media expert Larry Fergeson participated in the 4th Communication meeting of Concord in Brussels from 15-16 March 2010. CONCORD is the European NGO Confederation for Relief and Development. Its 18 international networks and 24 national associations from the European Member States represent more than 1600 European NGOs vis-à-vis the European Institutions. The main objective of the Confederation is to enhance the impact of European development NGOs vis-à-vis the European Institutions by combining expertise and accountability.

This meeting deepened the 2009 training that provided the first information on “how to improve your relations with the media”.

This meeting helped to translate an advocacy strategy into media messages based on the Aid Watch case study. The meeting also gave members a chance to practice skills and prepare the 2010 Aid Watch campaign.

Local reggae/dub sound system supports families of refugees and asylum seekers

On March 6, 2010 an event called "ROOTS REGGAE AND DUBS" took place at Tritos Pantheon featuring Roots Crew Soundsystem + selector Dubu and mc Kippa. Not only was it a great night of music but the organisers also were socially progressive and responsible to their local community! They donated 1 Euro from each ticket to support families of refugees and asylum seekers in need in Cyprus.

Please click here for more info on the organisers!

We very much appreciate all the people who made this event happen and thank them for thinking of those most in need in our local community!

Latest Jumpstart training a great success

A three-day training on Campaigning and Public Relations took place during the weekend 5-7 March at L.A. Resort in Lapta/Lapithos, as part of the project
“Jumpstart Youth Peace Campaign”, implemented by Youth Center Union and FWC.
The training brought together 18 youth, aged 18-30 from all across Cyprus aiming at providing them with skills and knowledge on how to organize successful events and activities in the framework of the “Jumpstart Youth Peace Campaign”.

During the training, participants attended sessions dealing with the idea of “space” and had the chance to critically explore propaganda and media manipulation mechanisms. They then focus on Campaigning and investigated Public Relations methods which they could utilize during the organization of their own activities. At a later stage, participants formed groups and set out to come up with concrete action plans for activities in the areas of Environment, Human Rights and Leisure.

Apart from the sessions, participants went out together and took walks to the nearby village. These activities helped young people develop stronger bonds and strengthened the dynamic of the group.

Participants of each action team will meet regularly together so as to organize their activities and monitor their own actions, under the coordination of Youth Center and Future Worlds Center.


Please click here to read an article about the training in Kathimerini newspaper.

FWC presents Cyberethics at Levent College

FWC associates Selen Mesutoglu and Lawrence Kalogreades presented CyberEthics information to students at Levent College in north Cyprus. Click here to read more about the event printed in Kibris Newspaper.

Limassol teachers participate in Global Education Training

A training for teachers aiming at equipping teachers of Primary and Secondary Education with skills on how to incorporate Global/ Development Education in class was successfully implemented by FWC at Pedagogical Institute in Limassol on 1st and 4th March 2010 as part of the E.U.–funded project “Accessing Development Education”.

26 teachers from all across Limassol participated in the interactive workshops which were conducted by experienced teachers who have been active in the field of Global/ Development Education and have taken part in capacity-building activities as part of the E.U.-funded project “Accessing Development Education”

During the training, teachers explored the main issues, skills and attitudes promoted by Development Education by the use of interactive participatory methods which also form part of Development Education methodology. Furthermore, they also discussed different ways of incorporating the global dimension in their lessons in class.

Teachers showed great interest in the activities and found the sessions quite useful for their teaching. Some of them said that they felt motivated enough to implement some of the activities they had learnt about in class.
Future Worlds Center promised to keep in touch with the participant teachers and provide material and further information regarding the European Conference of Development Education expected to take part from 8-10 April in Limassol as part of the project.

FWC represented at Anna Lindh Foundation Forum 2010

The activities of the Anna Lindh Foundation Forum 2010 were officially inaugurated at the Intercultural Fair, one of the key sections of the Forum's Medina.

The Anna Lindh Forum is a major civil society gathering for the promotion of intercultural action across the Mediterranean region. Taking place in Barcelona the Forum brought together for the very first time over 500 civil society and NGO representatives from the 43 Union for the Mediterranean countries to debate and create action in favour of dialogue, mutual understanding and peace.

The fair gathered 128 organisations, like FWC, in the Euro-Med region who are active in Intercultural Dialogue. The fair had an open space feel with areas of specialisation highlighting the different organisation's work in education, youth, peace, co-existence, migrants and diversity.

For more information click here.