Jūratė Šovienė

Chair of the Council of the Communications Regulatory Authority of Lithuania

She has 20-year experience in competition policy, regulation and strategy including leading positions at the Lithuanian Competition Council. She also served as Chief Legal Adviser to the President of Lithuania holding position of the Head of Legal Affairs Group at the Office of the President of the Republic of Lithuania. Ms J. Šovienė has more than 10-year experience as the Senior Expert/Project Manager in a number of EU projects in the field of competition law.

Ms. J. Šovienė has experience in Academia too as the former Member of Economics Study Program Committee at Kaunas University of Technology, research fellow and the lecturer of administrative law. In 2016, Ms J. Šovienė was awarded a prize by Lithuanian Academy of Sciences for a co-authored monography “The Impact of Cartels on National Economy and Competitiveness”. She was also recognized as one of the 40 Notable Women Competition Professionals in Enforcement in Europe, the Americas, Africa (by W@Competition, 2019) and was awarded the State Award the Medal of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas for the significant contribution to the protection of fair competition by the President of Lithuania (2018). After taking position of the Chair of the Council of Lithuanian regulator, Ms. J. Šovienė participated as the speaker at many national and international conferences, joined the BEREC Board of Regulators.

Ms. J. Šovienė has Master’s degrees in Business Management and Law.

Video records

Pre 12: https://youtu.be/Wys39dXyAD0
Opening: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK2b7CjAzrM&t=439s
Keynote: https://youtu.be/JONt9MyHhdo?t=51

Transcript

Keynote

Disclaimer: This is not an official record of the session. The DiploAI system automatically generates these resources from the audiovisual recording. Resources are presented in their original format, as provided by the AI (e.g. including any spelling mistakes). The accuracy of these resources cannot be guaranteed.

Transcripts and more session details were provided by the Geneva Internet Platform

Juratė Soviene: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Good afternoon, my dear colleagues. I am a digital immigrant. The digital world is not my native world. Sometimes I like it. Sometimes I hate it. But I live with digital natives and digital refugees. And I think that I can be a bridge between them. Last year, on the occasion of Lithuania’s centenary in the ITU, we initiated the project No One Is Left Behind. The aim of the project is to reduce the digital divide among our elderly citizens. We left our comfortable office in Vilnius and started traveling around Lithuania. The first participants in our projects were the students of the third age university. With limited resources, we decided to use an already established network covering the whole of Lithuania for elderly people. They are active and they are eager for knowledge. At our workshops, we aim to improve senior citizens’ digital skills, make them aware of scammers, and teach them how to use electronic signatures and digital services. In the first half of the year, we organized digital workshops for nearly 1,000 elderly people. Several dozens of organizations have already joined the project – state agencies, businesses, municipalities. An important partner of this project is regional media. The project is also under the patronage of the President of Lithuania. And what have we learned during this half of the year so far? That such a project challenges us, public authorities and businesses, but they help create sustainable partnerships, build trust in digital services. We learned that, and it was more or less a discovery for us, that the project helps not only our seniors, but teaches us, the government officials, what it means to put people first not in declarations, but in real life. It helps us understand the needs and capabilities of our citizens and what works and what doesn’t in our digital transformation efforts. We came out of our bureaucratic bubble and started to notice that our letters, our way of speaking, our digital services are incomprehensible and inaccessible to many users. Business services and devices are also usually designed for smart, healthy, and young, for people with good hearing and sight, excellent memory, and steady hands. Yesterday, representatives from YouthDIG were complaining that they are not heard, or not always heard, not taken into account their opinion. And yes, that’s partially true. Sometimes that’s true. But at least, being so smart, they can hope that one day they will occupy the positions of deaf, not dead, but deaf, politicians, bureaucrats, and change the world. And sure, they will. One-fifth of Lithuania’s population is 65 years or older, making it one of the fastest aging societies. Similar situation is in the whole EU. And EU data shows that only one in four people aged 65 to 74 have basic digital skills. And digital literacy declines with age. So three out of four are digital refugees. They avoid digital tools, view them unsettling and scary. And in half a year, our team, my colleagues from Communications Regulatory Authority, with the help of our partners, has really done a lot. However, given that number of seniors and the level of digital literacy, it would take us 300 years at this pace. A cynic might argue that, you know, 50 years of doing nothing will sort things out on their own, because after all, the generation of digital natives is growing. And indeed, today, about 90% of school-aged children in Lithuania have a smartphone. On average, their screen time is more than six hours. However, the World Health Organization has recognized digital addiction as a widespread problem. Smartphone abuse is most common among people under the age of 30, with as many as 40% of teenagers self-admitting that they have a smartphone addiction. 53% of Gen Z would rather live without a close friend than their cell phone. Lack of sleep, headaches, less concentration, creativity blocks, anxiety, stress, loneliness, insecurity, broken relationships, poor grades, these are the consequences of screen addiction. Last year, our hotline received 65% more reports of harmful content for minors online than in previous years. A teddy bear on the stage is part of our Safer Internet project. It will hurt your hands if you touch it. Lithuanian artist Jolita Vytautas made it from thousands of phone screen protectors. It carries the message that, at first glance, pleasant and attractive things can hide dangers. Last year, we also started holding classes at our office and outside several times per month. Our experts have become storytellers, sharing stories about online safety with students at all ages. We try to find a common language with them and share our experiences. These lessons are very popular. Schools from various Lithuanian cities invite us to visit and talk to their children. We already count hundreds of school children who participated in these lessons in various Lithuanian cities. Is this enough to say that we are putting people first? I think that, despite our initiative in Lithuania, internet safety is still left in the hands of enthusiastic teachers and non-government organizations. It seems that in other countries, the situation is similar. Yesterday, again, it was mentioned that we Europeans are better at regulation rather than innovation. But you know, it’s better to be good at something, at least. It’s good that, in Europe, we finally have adopted the Digital Services Act, the main objective of which is to create a safer internet environment for digital users and protect their fundamental rights in the digital space. But we need to do much more. We need to do much more to create awareness that digital skills are as essential today as literacy and numeracy. Leaving a child with a digital divide is the same as leaving a child in an unlocked house. So that it doesn’t take 350 years for us to be able to say that we are putting people first. The questions of internet governance, digital literacy, safer internet should be on the policymakers’ agenda, on a minister’s agenda. Such projects, as we have launched, should become the project of every organization, of every business and every family. It must become the project of the entire state. And I believe that we, digital immigrants, know how to lead by example and be a bridge between digital refugees and digital natives. Putting people first in reality, not just in declarations. And reducing not only digital, but also generational gap. Thank you very much.

Jūratė Šovienė – Keynote 04 24

Contents