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The Catalan Data Protection Authority (APDCAT) is participating on May 27 and 28 in Strasbourg in the Digital Citizenship Education Forum ‘Let’s Act Now!’, an event organized by the Council of Europe within the activities marking the celebration of the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education in 2025.
The ‘Let’s Act Now!’ forum aims to support member states in creating inclusive, equitable, and empowering learning environments. Its goal is to identify actions that respond to the challenges of digital technologies by redesigning pedagogical approaches and learning settings.
In this context, Olga Rierola, head of the DPO Registry and training and cooperation programs at APDCAT, defended gamification techniques as an effective and strategic educational tool for data protection, particularly aimed at children and youth. This aligns with numerous studies that support the use of games to motivate learning, build knowledge, develop skills, and enhance engagement and participation. Rierola shared resources and materials developed by the Authority that place gameplay at the heart of awareness and outreach efforts.
Specifically, in the session ‘New Forms of Creative Learning: The Video Game Culture’, Rierola highlighted the use of games and the active involvement of children and young people in APDCAT’s ongoing projects, such as ‘Qui ets? Dades que parlen de tu’, which features a series of library-based activities across Catalonia focused on gaming and privacy. Among the materials created for this project, she spotlighted the interactive game ‘You Choose!’, an educational and participatory resource designed by APDCAT to raise awareness among teens about the dangers of losing control of their personal data when navigating the internet or social networks. Designed for youth aged 12 to 16, the game encourages active participation through the story of two teens who play online and compete with each other, until their personal data is suddenly hijacked. She also mentioned similar resources like the memory game ‘MemoriDada’ and the educational video tale ‘An Exciting Journey’.
2025: The European Year of Digital Citizenship Education
The Council of Europe has declared 2025 as the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education to boost the development and promotion of digital citizenship education across all member states. The aim is for students to become more aware of the changes brought by digital technologies, recognize the benefits of the online environments they navigate, and improve their knowledge and skills to avoid risks.
With a series of planned activities, the 2025 European Year presents an opportunity to enhance the visibility and impact of digital citizenship education, advance shared goals, exchange best practices, and jointly define a roadmap for the future, providing space for collaboration between key stakeholders from the public, private, and civil sectors.
The Catalan Data Protection Authority has advocated at the Digital Citizenship Education Forum ‘Let’s Act Now!’ for the need for citizens to take control of their digital identity and has promoted gamification as an effective tool to educate children and young people on data protection, as part of the activities scheduled for the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education