The forum “#behindthescreen – It’s not all just a joke!” was held at the Zora hall in Crikvenica. The central themes were peer bullying, internet safety and responsibility in digital communication.
The forum was organised by the Dr Antun Baric Secondary School in Crikvenica, as part of the international CARING 2.0 project and the Science Afternoon cycle. Students participated in the design and organisation, prepared questions and took on the role of moderators.
Participants in the discussion included Dr Jasminka Zloković, a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Rijeka; Darko Tot, a qualified social pedagogue and deputy head of the City of Zagreb’s Office for Education, Sport and Youth; and Tamara Tomić, a student at the Dr Antun Baric Secondary School in Crikvenica.
The discussion covered various forms of peer bullying, particularly those in the digital environment. There was talk of the line between a joke and an insult, the responsibility of bystanders, and the importance of timely recognition of violence and providing support to young people.
During the forum, students presented the international CARING 2.0 project, which focuses on violence prevention and empowering children and young people, as well as the #behindthescreen video campaign. The audience watched two videos prepared by students as part of the campaign for the first time.
The first video featured short interviews with Karla Šoštarić, an actress and drama student; Ana Kalanj Spahić, a teacher and literary blogger known as Teacher Reads; and Marcela Oroši, a singer and former student of the school. The second video gathered a number of well-known figures from the worlds of sport, music, art and digital media who completed the sentence “People behind screens forget that…”.
Both videos are the result of student engagement in designing, collecting and editing content, and represent the start of a wider campaign that will continue with the publication of content on social media. We thank the Dr Ivan Kostrenčić Cultural Centre in Crikvenica, as well as the associations Filmaktiv and Kultura svima svugdje, for their support and knowledge transfer.
The message of the forum is that not everything is just a joke, and that behind every screen there is a real person whose feelings and dignity must be respected.
