Better Internet for Kids

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

BIK policies

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

Policy frameworks

Policy frameworks describe the overarching approach for a better internet, and establish the underlying goals, principles and guidelines that shape individual policies within this area.

In Romania:

• This topic is an important and emerging policy priority, with children’s online protection, digital empowerment, and digital participation partially covered in national/regional laws, regulations and policies.
• The topic of children and the digital environment is covered by broader policies (e.g., national digital strategy) rather than in separate dedicated policies and/or covers only one or two of the dimensions of protection, empowerment and participation.
• The BIK+ strategy is an important influence on policy development on children and the digital environment (i.e., it informs and guides national policies even if they do not directly refer to BIK+).

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

   

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

Read the full 2025 edition of the Policy monitor report.

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.

• Surveys of children’s digital activities are undertaken but only irregularly (e.g., the EU Kids Online survey data from 2020 is the only available source on a national level).
• Surveys of children’s experiences of risks, harms and digital well-being are undertaken on an ad-hoc and irregular basis.
• There is no system in place at the government level to gather information on children and the digital environment.
• There is no funding available for research on children and the digital environment.
• There is no monitoring or evaluation of policies on children and the digital environment.

Read the full Policy monitor country profile for detailed information on recent national research studies in Romania.

Read the full 2025 edition of the Policy monitor report.

Policy governance

Policy governance examines how policies are coordinated at the governmental level, whether other implementation bodies are involved in their delivery, and whether structured mechanisms are available to guide their implementation.

• There is no specific leadership in policy development on this topic.
• Coordination of policies and their implementation is distributed across multiple entities.
• There is a defined national action plan on children and the digital environment with accountabilities such as defined timelines, assigned responsibilities or key performance indicators (KPIs).

Read the full Policy monitor country profile for detailed information on key policy governance mechanisms in Romania.

Read the full 2025 edition of the Policy monitor report.

Stakeholder involvement

Stakeholder involvement enquires how different stakeholders can participate in policy development. Children’s involvement in policy-making is one such key issue. Additionally, international knowledge exchange about children's digital participation is also relevant to this topic.

• There are occasional opportunities for different stakeholders to participate in policy development, but this is infrequent.
• Public consultation is infrequent and irregular.
• Children’s interests are considered indirectly (e.g., through analysis of existing surveys, data collections).

Read the full Policy monitor country profile for detailed information on crucial stakeholder involvement mechanisms in Romania.

Read the full 2025 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. 

Implementing EU laws

• Audiovisual media service providers are covered by Audiovisual Law no. 504/2002, as amended, and the Regulatory Code of the Audiovisual Content (Decision no. 220/2011) adopted by the National Audiovisual Council of Romania. According to this law, the National Audiovisual Council (CNA) "is consulted on all draft normative acts that regulate activities in the audiovisual field or related to it."
• In March 2023, the Romanian Government proposed that the National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications (ANCOM) as the Digital Services Coordinator (DSC) as required by the Digital Services Act (DSA). The same memorandum granted ANCOM the necessary powers to meet the deadline for DSC designation.
• In October 2024, ANCOM granted trusted flagger status to Salvați Copiii, Romania’s Hotline, in accordance with the provisions of Art. 22 para. (2) of the Digital Services Act. As a trusted flagger, its designated area of expertise being ‘Facts concerning the minors.’
• As the DSC, ANCOM has taken steps towards raising the awareness of the other national authorities with regard to the DSA provisions related to children's online protection, meeting with various authorities, among which the National Authority for the Protection of Children's Rights Adoption, and attending round tables centred around the children's online protection.

Harmful online content

• According to the Art. 429 of the Audiovisual Law no. 504/2002, as amended, where the content of a video-sharing platform infringes the provisions on the protection of minors and the general public from illegal audiovisual content and no other effective means are available to prohibit the infringement of those provisions and to avoid the risk of serious harm to the collective interests of the public or the legitimate interests of a person, the Council will require video-sharing platform providers to remove or restrict access to illegal content or display a warning to users when accessing such content or to disable the user’s account for up to 12 months.
• The National Audiovisual Council can also request service providers offering storage space for video-sharing platforms to remove, disable, or restrict access to such a platform and domain name registrars who allocate domain names to such a platform to remove the domain name for such a platform.

Harmful online conduct

• Within the ‘Caring for Children’ government program, the Special Telecommunications Service (STS) has made operational the 119 telephone number which can be used nationally for reporting cases of abuse, neglect, exploitation, and any other forms of violence against children, including online violence. The Child's Phone Line and the counselling line of the Ora de Net Programme, implemented by Save the Children Romania, are also operational.
• Regarding the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, the field is regulated by Law 171/2023, amending and supplementing the Penal Code. It is not a separate offence when the victim is a minor, but an aggravating circumstance.
• There are also procedures in place for managing cases of violence against pre-school/primary children /students and school staff, including online; the procedure defines cyberbullying as a form of online bullying and provides an identification sheet as well as support measures for students, in line with the Order of Minister of Education no 6235/6th September 2023.

Age verification

• Digital identity systems are not available for minors in Romania.
• Under the Audiovisual Law no. 504/2002, as amended, the National Audiovisual Council (CNA) ensures that video-sharing platforms protect minors from harmful content. This includes implementing age verification systems for video-sharing platforms to safeguard minors' physical, mental, and moral development.

Commercial content

• According to the Art. 428 of the Audiovisual Law no. 504/2002, as amended: (3) In the field of video-sharing platforms, the use of co-regulation and self-regulation through codes of conduct is encouraged, with the aim of effectively reducing the exposure of children to audiovisual commercial communications for foods and beverages containing nutrients and substances with a nutritional or physiological effect, in particular fat, trans-fatty acids, salt or sodium and sugars, of which excessive intakes in the overall diet are not recommended.
• Art. 25 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) prohibits the design, organization or operation of the online interfaces of the online platforms in a way that deceives or manipulates the recipients of their service or in a way that otherwise materially distorts or impairs the ability of the recipients of their service to make free and informed decisions. DSA is directly applicable in Romania.
• The Code of Advertising Practice, developed by the Romanian Advertising Council, a professional, nongovernmental, non-profit and independent organization, focuses on the content of commercial communication. The Code is a set of ethical rules to be respected by all those involved in advertising and any form of commercial communication. According to the Code, commercial communication represents “advertising or other means of conveying information used by the advertiser in order to inform or influence the consumer’s behaviour, regardless of the distribution environment used, including promotions, sponsorships, direct sales and outlet presentations”.

Mental health and well-being

• Save the Children runs programmes for the benefit of all children but pays special attention to those in difficult situations.

   

Pillar 2 – digital empowerment

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

Supports for online safety education

• Under the now approved new school-based curriculum for the school year 2023/2024 there are several integrated optional school-based curricula with an important digital dimension. Amongst others:
  • EduGaming aims at developing responsible and safe online gaming behaviour for fifth- and sixth-grade students; the optional includes learning activities, valid for digital and board games;
  • Digital Culture is an optional curriculum that offers students in the seventh and eighth grades forms of digital cultural expression (sketch, book trailer, art trailer, photo gallery, interactive story, graffiti, etc.) of cultural products, as well as adapting the message to different communication contexts specific to multiliteracies.
• The Order of the Minister of Education no. 5.726/06.08.2024, on the approval of the Framework Regulation on the organisation and functioning of pre-university education units, contains provisions regulating the way of conducting online and hybrid teaching activities, through technology and the Internet, to use pedagogical techniques for resilient and inclusive distance learning, as well as the collection, management and processing of personal data of participants in this type of activities.
• According to the Order, the use of cell phones or any other electronic communication equipment by students shall be carried out in accordance with the legal provisions stipulated in the Pre-University Education Law no. 198/2023, with subsequent amendments and additions; their use during class time may only be made at the request of the teacher, in the situation of their use in the educational process. The provisions do not apply to equipment students with CES are authorised to use.
• The Ministry of Education of Romania, with the technical assistance of UNICEF and in cooperation with the European Commission, implements via the Technical Support Instrument the Project ‘Policies and Resources for Safe and Supportive Schools’ from July 2024 to July 2026.
• The scope of this technical support is to improve the institutional capacity of the Romanian authorities to foster a healthy school environment in which social and emotional learning, psychosocial support, well-being, and mental health are part of a whole-school approach. This project contributes to the ongoing reform on incorporating social and emotional learning into teaching and classroom management in line with the national curriculum, supporting education staff to identify and refer secondary school students in need of specialist psychosocial support and build a capacity-building programme promoting mental health in schools in Romania, with a focus on vulnerable groups.
• The Ministry of Education and Research, the West University of Timisoara, alongside partners from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Poland and Italy, collaborate to implement the Erasmus+ project ‘Teachers 4.0 Digital Age’.

Digital literacy skills to empower young people

• The Romanian Framework of Digital Competences for Students approved by the Ministerial Order no. 6.466 /30.08.2024, approving the Framework of digital competences for students, uses DigCompRo, based on DigComp 2.2, as a reference model and details the main competence areas, expected levels of performance and specific descriptors for each competence. The digital competence profile covers six main areas, ranging from the use of digital devices and information literacy to cyber safety and responsible use of technology. These areas ensure the development of a wide range of skills essential for pupils' personal and professional lives.
• A ‘Digital Citizenship Initiative’ has joined the initiative against cyberbullying, focusing on ‘Digital Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities on the Internet regarding personal data’. This initiative, launched by Save the Children under the European Insafe network, aims to educate and empower children regarding their online presence and personal data protection.
• As part of the curricular areas Language and Communication and Man and Society, the Ministry of Education introduced in 2022 the non-compulsory/at school decision curriculum ‘Digital Education and Media Skills’. It is available for upper secondary pupils, aiming at developing the ability to evaluate messages in terms of their credibility and validity, regardless of the source of communication. At the same time, Informatics and ICT, part of the compulsory curriculum for lower secondary education and technological upper secondary education, provides pupils with a framework for structuring their new technologies skills.
• Starting in 2021, the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), in partnership with the Ministry of Education, implements a program on media education for teachers in secondary education, introducing media education concepts into their daily teaching and learning activities. Through the ‘Teaching Media Literacy - Media Literacy and Media Literacy Lab’ program, students acquire critical thinking skills that will enable them to distinguish facts from opinions, deconstruct media messages and interact responsibly with social networks. Up to now, around 700 teachers have benefited from the training provided by CIJ. In November 2024, the Ministry of Education has renewed the partnership with CIJ in view of continuing the initiative, focusing on teacher training, the further development of optional courses o digital media education for lower and upper secondary education and the development and promotion of quality open educational resources for media education.
• During 2024, 34 established academics from 9 European universities and institutions have been developing an exclusive and thorough University Course entitled ‘Tackling Disinformation and Promoting Digital Media Literacy through Education and Training’

Pillar 3 – active participation, respecting children’s rights

Active participation, respecting children’s rights, refers to actions which give children and young people a say in the digital environment, with more child-led activities to foster innovative and creative safe digital experiences.

Active participation

• National/regional activities are in place to promote active participation, youth civic engagement, and advocacy in the digital environment. The initiatives are mostly at the NGO level, though some have support from national/local authorities.
• Save the Children also has a broad network of young individuals trained in online safety who have become ambassadors for the “Ora de net” program. They actively help organise activities among peers in schools, creating a supportive community that encourages responsible and secure online behaviour among adolescents.
• Youth participation is primarily carried out through involvement in the activities of NGOs.
• Save the Children has launched national activities to promote better awareness of children’s rights in the digital environment.

Digital creativity

• Save the Children Romania hosts forums and camps that nurture digital creativity. These events provide platforms for young individuals to explore and enhance their skills in various digital domains, fostering innovation and collaboration within a dynamic and interactive learning environment.

Digital inclusion

• The educational initiative "The rights of children and adolescents in the online environment" was developed by Save the Children through the European project Ora de Net, in partnership with Endava. Over the last decade, the Ministry of Education has supported this approach.

BIK+ index 2025: Romania

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 Romania 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 February 2025.