Hack4Kids winners pick up prizes in Parliament

After 30 hours of intense coding - and personal visits from Vice President Neelie Kroes and journalist and blogger Cory Doctorow - it was time for the 37 hackers of 11 nationalities who took part in Hack4Kids to find out who would win the 5000 euro first prize awards.

In the Child Safety Track, the jury awarded:

• First Prize: to Team Bodoques (Spain/Italy) with their eyeTime Tool informing kids and parents about the duration of their online session.
• Second Prize: to Team Soe (Germany/Sweden/Cambodja) with their SecondFriend chat app allowing kids to chat with counselors from helplines in an easy, intuitive and privacy-friendly manner.
• Third Prize: to Team Milktooth (Italy), with their Milktooth filter activated by the presence of the parents’ phone (by bluetooth) and filters of content that are picture/ad specific so that kids and parents watching the same website see customised pages.

In the Child Creativity track, the jury awarded:

• First Prize: to Team Water (Finland), with their Waterbear tool to make coding for kids easier, so that they not only use digital products and services - but also understand them and learn how make them!
• Second Prize: to Gianluca Cancelmi (Italy), with his semantic WikiQuiz including social media aspects.
• Third Prize: to Team LeGarage (France), with their Kwizzle space invader quiz.

MEPs Sabine Verheyen, Róża Maria Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein, Sean Kelly and Petru Luhan awarded the prizes at a special ceremony in the European Parliament.



The next step for all the sponsors (Google, Orange, Vodafone, Facebook) is to work with the coders to see if we can turn their ideas into real tools that can be used to make the web a better - and more creative - place for children and families.

Posted by Marco Pancini, Senior Policy Counsel