Better Internet for Kids

This position paper presents Eurochild’s recommendations for the development of the EU Action Plan Against Cyberbullying. It highlights cyberbullying as a growing threat to children's mental health, well-being, and participation in digital spaces. The document advocates for a child-rights-based approach that combines prevention, education, awareness-raising, and support services for victims.

The Internet Watch Foundation’s 2026 report examines the rapidly growing use of generative AI to create child sexual abuse material (CSAM). It documents increases in the volume, realism and severity of AI-generated abuse imagery and video, drawing on IWF analysts’ casework and material from offender communities. The report also highlights how easier-to-use AI tools are lowering technical barriers, enabling deepfakes and abusive chatbot scenarios, and potentially re-victimising real children whose images are used to train or generate content.

This 2022 JRC report examines how artificial intelligence affects children’s rights and how research and policymaking can better address both the opportunities and risks involved. It reviews relevant policy initiatives and research on conversational agents, recommender systems, and robotic systems, and incorporates input from workshops with children, young people, researchers, and policymakers. The report identifies shared priorities across these groups and proposes recommendations for a more integrated research and policy agenda on AI and children’s rights.

Ofcom’s 2024 review examines how children’s developmental stages affect their online behaviour and exposure to risk. It proposes five age groups, from 0–5 through 16–17, and looks at factors such as cognitive development, impulsivity, peer influence, self-image, sexuality, online habits, harmful content, and parental supervision. The main message is that children’s online risks and support needs change significantly with age and development, so online safety measures should take these differences into account rather than treating children as a single group.

The report presents a forward-looking approach to digital child safety that moves away from mainly reactive or restriction-based measures. It argues for child-centred digital ecosystems in which safety, rights, agency and well-being are built into products, services and policies from the outset. It proposes four areas for action: trust-building design, help-seeking and reporting mechanisms, on-device interventions for conduct and contact risks, and educational/user-interface approaches.

This manifesto presents children and young people’s priorities for the future development and governance of AI. It was developed through the Children’s AI Summit, involving around 150 children aged 8–18 from across the UK. The manifesto covers concerns and proposals relating to AI safety and wellbeing, education, bias, privacy, the environment, and how AI should be designed and governed. Its central message is that children should be actively involved in decisions about AI and that their rights, needs and perspectives should be taken seriously by policymakers and developers.

This 2025 UNICEF Innocenti working paper examines how the “best interests of the child” principle should be applied in the digital environment. It reviews existing legal and policy approaches across different jurisdictions and discusses tensions between protection, autonomy, participation, access, skills, wellbeing, and commercial interests.

This 2021 UNICEF self-assessment tool is designed to help mobile operators identify, assess and address their impacts on children’s rights across their business activities. It goes beyond online safety alone, covering areas such as corporate responsibility, products and marketing, human resources, procurement, network operations and security, while giving particular attention to children’s rights in the digital environment. It addresses issues including access, privacy, cyberbullying, harmful content, child sexual exploitation and abuse, grievance mechanisms and parental controls.

This 2021 UNICEF discussion paper examines how age assurance and age verification tools can be used to protect children online, while also considering the potential impact of these tools on children’s broader rights. It reviews different age assurance methods, their strengths and limitations, and their possible use in relation to risks such as harmful content, grooming, gambling, online gaming, social media and child sexual abuse material.

This 2023 UNICEF Innocenti report examines how the metaverse and other extended-reality environments may affect children and young people. It considers both potential benefits and risks, including opportunities for learning, play and social interaction, alongside concerns around harmful content and behaviour, privacy, inclusion and children’s rights. It also looks at expected technological developments and the regulatory challenges they create.