Since the springtime hundreds of 14-16 year old pupils across Europe have now completed the online survey which has looked at young people’s online experiences and in particular at their experiences of cyberbullying behaviours. This survey work is almost complete so over the next few months the project team will start analysing their own regional responses, and begin comparing the results of the different regions.

While this first phase is almost complete, the second phase has now also begun. This stage begins with focus group interviews with young people where data from the survey is used as a stimulus to prompt conversation around cyberbullying and online behaviours.

A key feature of the second stage of the project is the “Quality Circle” approach in our resource-building workshops. The project team have adopted this approach as they hope to provide a co-participatory experience for the young people involved by allowing them to be joint decision makers in the creative process. Each partner region will thus produce resources that are context-specific and relevant to the pupils, teachers and parents involved. These original resources will then be made available to the schools involved, but also to other schools in the respective regions, equipping young people with appropriate tools to stay safe while online. Initial feedback from the partners who have started these sessions suggests that the pupils involved are thoroughly enjoying their part in the project and are excited to see the final outcomes. Each partner region will showcase their resources at special dissemination events in June 2019.

During the meeting in Bologna, the team invited Dr Barbara Spears, Associate Professor, University of South Australia to share her experience and expertise in co-participation with young people. The team is now delighted to welcome her as an advisor to the project and is looking forward to further collaboration with her in the future.

Principal Investigator, Dr Noel Purdy, comments on progress to date: "We're now over half way through our project and have reached the crucial stage of co-creating resources with the young people in our partner schools. These young people have been working so hard over recent weeks and we are excited to see their ideas taking shape."

As the project moves forward, the team continue to create resources using the quality circle approach and are looking forward to their third and final transnational meeting in Berlin (scheduled for March 2019) where findings and resources will be shared.

Our official website can be found at https://www.ou.nl/web/blurred-lives/project. Here you can find information about the project and team members, and over the coming months we will be sharing our resources here too. For regular updates, please also follow our Twitter feed @BlurredLives.

For more information about the Blurred Lives Project, please contact any of the project partner leads:

• Dr Noel Purdy n.purdy@stran.ac.uk
• Prof Peter Smith at p.smith@gold.ac.uk
• Prof Herbert Scheithauer herbert.scheithauer@fu-berlin.de
• Dr Consuelo Mameli consuelo.mameli@unibo.it
• Prof Antonella Brighi antonella.brighi@unibo.it
• Dr Trijntje Völlink trijntje.vollink@ou.nl