For the past ten years, Bee Secure has been introducing children to digital topics through its DigiRallye project. On Thursday morning, the latest edition kicked off in an unusual setting: with all the lights switched off in the forum of Luxembourg City’s Geesseknäppchen school campus.
The darkness was deliberate. Organisers had cut the power to underscore the concept behind this year’s event – teaching digital education in a completely analogue way.
In a series of workshops, children from various after-school drop-in centres take part in activities designed to raise awareness about the digital world, all without ever going online. Elise Laera from Bee Secure, who is overseeing this edition of the DigiRallye, explained that most primary school-aged children are not yet familiar with social media or managing online accounts. For this reason, organisers felt it was more appropriate to keep the exercises offline.
To illustrate how to keep future accounts private, Bee Secure staff use an analogy familiar to many children: the German-style “friendship book”, a shared journal popular among students in primary education. Children understand that while a friendship book is meant for close friends, what they write may also be seen by their friends’ friends. The exercise uses this awareness to draw a parallel to the online world, helping children grasp the importance of reflecting on what aspects of their private lives they may one day choose to share digitally.
Throughout the day, the tasks completed by the children earn them points. Their collective goal is to restore power to the darkened forum, creating a symbolic path toward the digital world – built entirely through analogue means.
Held over two days during the Carnival holiday, this year’s event welcomed more than 100 participants. Since its first edition in 2015, the DigiRallye has been organised twice annually for children in Cycles 3 and 4 from local drop-in centres.
