Sandra Marisa Freitas da Costa is a Portuguese Geography teacher with approximately 20 years of teaching experience. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Distance Education and Online Learning. She holds a Master's degree in Geography (specializing in spatial planning) and a Degree in Geography (specializing in teaching). She focuses on educational innovation, digital learning, and citizenship education. Passionate about lifelong learning, Sandra promotes international collaboration, online learning and innovative educational practices. She has contributed to projects such as eTwinning and Global Classroom, acting as a mentor, national coordinator, author, international speaker, and leader of online educational projects. Her work has been recognized through some national and international awards in the areas of educational innovation; leadership; education, gender and citizenship, and global education.

DIGITAL SECURITY AS A VECTOR OF EMPOWERMENT: THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ESCLARECE_AGORA CHATBOT IN PROMOTING GENDER EQUITY IN DISTANCE EDUCATION"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Abstract: This work presents an innovative experience of pedagogical integration of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the context of Distance Education (E@D), with a particular focus on promoting gender equity and empowering vulnerable populations.   The Fonseca Benevides Secondary School (ESFB), a national reference institution in E@D in Portugal, welcomes students in contexts of social, health or sporting vulnerability, where inequality of digital access and cybersecurity assume critical dimensions for educational inclusion.  The Esclarece_Agora individual initiative implements an AI-based chatbot as a communication mediation tool, supporting autonomous study and optimizing the teaching workload. Based on the National Cybersecurity Reference Framework (QNRCS) and the National Cybersecurity Strategy 2019-2023, the operational plan developed articulates personal data protection (GDPR), prevention of specific risks of generative AI, digital literacy, and pedagogical continuity.  The approach adopted highlights a holistic perspective of empowerment, recognizing that digital security is an essential condition for the full participation of women, young people, and vulnerable groups in the educational cyberspace.   Through actions structured around the five pillars of the QNRCS (Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover), the project promotes: • Empowerment through digital literacy: Differentiated training of students, teachers, and families for responsible and critical digital citizenship; • Protection of vulnerable groups: Prioritization of safeguarding children and adolescents, with particular attention to gender dimensions in cyber threats; • Equity in technological access: Guaranteeing secure digital environments that do not reproduce structural inequalities; • Inclusive governance: Structuring responsibilities (CISO, DPO, SOC, CSIRT) that ensure transparency and accountability.  Preliminary results demonstrate that technology, when properly framed within robust and gender-sensitive security plans, can be a vector of social transformation, reducing teacher workloads, facilitating educational interaction, and promoting student autonomy in digitally resilient environments.  Keywords: Digital security, gender equality, distance learning, artificial intelligence, empowerment, educational inclusion, school cybersecurity.