Drucker: We Support Joint Solutions to Make Online Space Safer for Children

Bratislava, 10 November (TASR) – Children's safety in schools and online, violence prevention and the radicalisation of young people are issues that transcend national borders, Education Minister Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD) declared after a joint session of the Slovak and Czech governments on Tuesday. Drucker added that both countries support EU and European Commission initiatives to regulate the online environment, but Slovakia does not want to wait for action at EU level. This sentiment was echoed also by his Czech counterpart Robert Plaga. Drucker said aggression, mobilisation and radicalisation towards violence are increasing at a very young age, not only in Slovakia but also in other EU countries. "Our schools are facing attacks across Europe, and this is something we were not accustomed to. I'll say openly that we have no intention of getting used to it, either. We're taking numerous measures to improve safety in schools," the Slovak education minister claimed. He pointed out that children are now also connected to the online environment in which they have been growing up, and that both countries have already adopted several measures in response. "We fully support joint solutions to regulate social media and the online environment to make it safe for our children and ensure that algorithms do not prevail over people," Drucker said. The Slovak minister also welcomed the fact that the European Union and the European Commission have begun work on preparing a new piece of legislation, EU Kids. However, in Drucker's view, this does not alter the responsibility of individual countries and governments to protect children. Drucker added that the two countries plan to present a position at the next council meeting calling on the European Commission not to prevent member states from protecting their children. Another area of cooperation discussed was the education and training of specialists in technical fields, including nuclear science and energy, physics and medicine. According to Drucker, both countries have a relatively strong position in terms of knowledge and skills. "Slovakia has a strong ambition to establish training centres in the nuclear field in Slovakia in cooperation with the Czech Republic," he added. mf