Between 5-6 September, the Hungarian Safer Internet Centre (SIC) organised the XIV Media and Internet Conference, which took place in Budapest. This conference served as a key event for exchanging knowledge and addressing the urgent need to ensure a safe and protected digital environment for all children.


The experts of the Biztonsagosinternet.hu hotline, as part of the Hungarian SIC, highlighted that countless children suffer from various forms of sexual abuse, including grooming. In their presentation, they discussed cases related to the anonymous chat platform AnoTalk, where users only need to submit their gender and age, and the system generates a random chat partner. AnoTalk is used by many lonely children seeking positive feedback. As the hotline receives numerous reports about the platform, the analysts decided to test the website by pretending to be a minor. The presentation included concrete excerpts from conversations about how predators seek out underage girls for BDSM relationships or try to divert the conversation to a platform where anonymity disappears (e.g. Instagram). The title of the presentation comes from a young girl who warned the analysts: ‘Leave this site before a paedo finds you!’

As well as demonstrating the emerging threats, another aim of the presentation was to give parents, teachers and caregivers help on how they can effectively talk to children to avoid grooming. For this purpose, attention was drawn to the IWF’s TALK methodology and their guide for parents and carers, which Biztonsagosinternet.hu has translated into Hungarian.


Around 200 people attended the conference, and c.a. 1,000 people joined the online stream.