Navigare Sicuri (http://www.navigaresicuri.org/) is a brand new Telecom Italia venture – set up in partnership with Save the Children and the Fondazione Movimento Bambino – to raise awareness among children, teenagers and parents about how to use the web with care and awareness. Today’s unveiling of the project, which was attended by Carlo Fornaro (Telecom Italia’s Head of External Relations), Valerio Neri (Save the Children Italia’s Director) and Maria Rita Parsi (Chairman of the Fondazione Movimento Bambino) featured speeches by two exceptional celebrity spokespeople, Geronimo Stilton and Giovanni Soldini, who received a warm welcome from their young fans.
The venture takes multiple approaches and offers a varied set of tools to communicate with a variety of age groups, from young children up to adult age.
Kids aged between six and ten have their own section of the website where they can find straightforward definitions of the technical terms that are most commonly used on the internet, and access a fun cartoon guide in which Geronimo Stilton, Editor-in-Chief of the Rodents’ Gazette, and Giovanni Soldini, in the unusual guise of a sailor mouse, explain the best way to strike out onto the web for the first time, steering clear of sandbanks and pirates.
For young people between the ages of 10 and 18, the venture features a special news section that is kept constantly updated, and a timetable of the information and awareness-raising events that will run throughout 2010 at Italian middle and high schools, in partnership with Save the Children.
To help parents with the challenging task of keeping their kids safe from the potential risks of inappropriate websurfing, the Navigare Sicuri website offers interactive access to psychologists and specialist staff, and provides details for contacting the Telefono Genitori toll-free helpline, which is run by the Fondazione Movimento Bambino.
Giovanni Soldini’s next sailing challenge – he’s sailing his Telecom Italia Class 40 yacht in the Solidaire du Chocolat, the first France-to-Mexico transatlantic race for Class 40 vessels, which sets sail from St Nazaire (near Nantes) on Sunday 18 October, bound for Progreso (Yucatan) – is also part of the Navigare Sicuri venture. Soldini will be sailing with Pietro D’Alì in a yacht race that is about more than just sport: it helps to promote charitable values through partnerships between the sailors and nonprofit organizations, which are receiving €25,000 donated by the race sponsor. The Telecom Italia Class 40’s sails will bear the logos of Navigare Sicuri and Save the Children along the 5,000 mile old chocolate trade route (without stopovers).
Giovanni Soldini says he is enthusiastic about the venture: “I am pleased to be a part of the Navigare Sicuri venture because I believe it is vital to raise awareness among young people about the right way to surf the net, which is increasingly full of dangers. I am proud to be using my Telecom Italia yacht to support a charity like Save the Children – an organization that has always sought to defend and protect children’s rights.”
Carlo Fornaro, Head of Telecom Italia’s External Relations department, says: “One of Telecom Italia’s primary objectives is to foster take-up of the internet and leading-edge communications technologies in Italy. Part of our commitment is not to neglect children and teenagers, who are not always appropriately informed and equipped to surf the web risk-free. Navigare Sicuri is one of the tangible ways in which Telecom Italia is working with parents to help make the up-and-coming generation of websurfers more mature and more aware.”