Better Internet for Kids

Here, we take an in-depth look at the latest monitoring information for Italy.

According to the Digital Decade 2025: Country reports, Italy’s digital landscape is characterised by high-quality infrastructure and advanced public services, but is significantly hindered by a critical shortage of digital skills and a lagging business sector. While 5G coverage reached 99.5% in 2024 and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) expanded to meet the EU average, the country’s ICT sector remains stagnant, contributing only 3.2% to gross value added. The low level of digital skills remains a challenge; only 45.8% of the population possesses basic digital skills, a figure substantially lower than the EU average of 55.6%. This gap is most severe among rural residents and those with lower education levels, and even the most skilled demographic – young people – lags behind their European peers. According to the State of the Digital Decade Eurobarometer 2025, public sentiment reflects an urgent demand for safer digital protections, with over 93% of citizens calling for government action on cyberbullying and children's mental health online. Responsibility for policy development concerning children and the digital environment is distributed across different ministries and authorities according to their respective mandates. The Ministero dell’Istruzione e del Merito plays a central role in education, prevention and awareness-raising actions, including the coordination of the Italian Safer Internet Centre (Generazioni Connesse).

Read the full Policy monitor country profile for detailed information on key national policy frameworks in Italy.

Read the full 2026 edition of the Policy monitor report.

BIK policies

This concerns how national-level policies relevant to the BIK agenda are organised, managed, and supported by evidence and stakeholder input.

Policy frameworks

Policy frameworks describe the overarching goals that shape policies for a better internet for kids. 

In Italy:

• This topic is being comprehensively addressed with children’s protection, empowerment and participation in the digital environment incorporated into national/regional laws, regulations and policies.
• There are separate, dedicated policies which address the topic of children and the digital environment (protection, empowerment, and participation). 

• The BIK+ strategy is an important influence on policy development on children and the digital environment.

• Children’s rights in the digital environment are implied rather than explicitly recognised in policies regarding children and the digital environment.

Policy design

Policy design asks whether evidence and research support BIK-related policies and whether systems are in place for monitoring and evaluating those policies.

In Italy:

• There is a regular (e.g., annual or bi-annual) nationally representative survey specifically focused on children’s digital activity, which informs national policies on BIK topics.
• Regular (e.g., annual or bi-annual) surveys include measures of children’s experiences of risks, harms and digital well-being.
• Systems are in place at the government level to gather information on children and the digital environment.
• Existing regular national research funding is available for research on children and the digital environment, but this is not explicitly specified.
• Policies are regularly monitored and evaluated, but not always systematically.

Policy governance

Policy governance examines how policies are coordinated at the governmental level, whether other implementation bodies are involved in their delivery and coordination.

In Italy:

• Policy development sits across different ministries with leadership officially distributed according to the area of specialisation.
• A clearly defined, formal coordination mechanism exists (e.g., task force, steering committee) with a clear mandate. It systematically engages all relevant stakeholders and ensures coherent, cross-cutting policy development and implementation related to children and the digital environment.
• One or more programmes of action is/are underway supporting children’s online safety and participation in the digital environment. However, these lack accountabilities, such as defined timelines, assigned responsibilities or key performance indicators (KPIs).

Stakeholder involvement

Stakeholder involvement enquires how different stakeholders can participate in policy development.

In Italy:

• A formal, designated multi-stakeholder forum is in place that consistently engages all relevant stakeholder groups (e.g., government, civil society, private sector, academia, children, and caregivers) and plays a meaningful role in policy discussion and development.
• The public is consulted during the development of new BIK policies. While engagement is structured and meaningful, it is event-driven and does not occur outside of major policy formulation efforts. 
• Children are actively involved in the design of policies related to their participation in the digital environment. There are specially designed structures in place for this purpose.

Read the full Policy monitor country profile for detailed information on key national policy frameworks in Italy.

Read the full 2026 edition of the Policy monitor report.

BIK+ actions

Pillar 1 – safe digital experiences

Safe digital experiences refer to actions taken to protect children from harmful and illegal online content, conduct, contact, and risks as young consumers and to improve their well-being online through a safe, age-appropriate digital environment created in a way that respects children’s best interests.

Pillar 2 – digital empowerment

Digital empowerment involves actions that ensure all children, including those in vulnerable situations, acquire the necessary skills and competences to make sound choices and to express themselves safely and responsibly in the online environment.

Pillar 3 – active participation, respecting children’s rights

This includes actions that promote young people's active participation and respect for their rights through such activities as fostering innovative and creative safe digital experiences for young people and ensuring they have a say in policies governing the digital environment.

Read the full Policy monitor country profile for detailed information on key national policy frameworks in Italy.

Read the full 2026 edition of the Policy monitor report.

BIK+ index 2026: Italy

The BIK+ index has been developed to provide an aggregated at-a-glance overview of the levels of implementation across the two dimensions, BIK policies and BIK+ actions, in Italy compared to the EU27+2 average. Values are shown in per cent.

Please note, the data used in this page and the corresponding country profile was collected in January 2026.