Children and young people

The Italian SIC (Generazioni Connesse) has worked closely with its youth panel to explore and design training and awareness actions aimed at children and young people to provide them with knowledge about the new rights outlined by the DSA.

The youth panel comprises boys and girls, aged 14 to 18, from five different Italian regions. A first hybrid two-day training session on the DSA was organised in April 2024, with about 15 panellists present in Giffoni Valle Piana, while the remaining panellists connected remotely. The training enabled the youth panel to understand the main aspects of the DSA, starting with its purpose and going into the main definitions and actors involved. The panellists were asked to draft requests and comments on aspects regulated by the DSA, to be sent to the main online platforms.

Between June and July 2024, a second online training session was organised for the youth panel members to deepen their knowledge of the DSA. This training was essential because at the Giffoni Film Festival, the world's most important children's film festival, youth panel members had the opportunity to meet and discuss with a representative of the Italian Communications Authority, which has been designated as the Digital Services Coordinator in Italy, during a roundtable.

In September 2024, a third training session for the youth panel was carried out. This time, the panellists were involved in residential training. The panellists were divided into different working groups focusing on different aspects regulated by the DSA. Some groups focused on practical aspects related to the procedures for reporting illegal content on platforms, while others analysed the conditions and terms of use for minors, and others dealt with the new possibilities for setting preferences for accounts in the name of minors.

Following previous training activities, the SIC considered it to be important to actively involve the youth panel in the wider awareness-raising and dissemination efforts on the DSA, too. Based on these considerations, further training activities were organised in October and November. In November, six panellists from the youth panel were selected to participate as speakers at Job & Orienta, an annual student orientation event held every year in Verona and attended by tens of thousands of students. During a public session, the panellists presented to their peers the main aspects of the DSA and some practical cases of how the innovations introduced by the DSA can benefit young people, as well as how young people need to learn how to defend themselves and assert their rights online.

Finally, a SID event was held at a theatre in Rome, attended by 500 students, and streamed live on the SIC Italy Generazioni Connesse YouTube channel, where it was followed by approximately 3,000 accounts. The structure of the SID event was set up as a debate, with members of the youth panel divided into two groups to face each other in a debate on four topics. Also, during this event, the importance of the DSA was highlighted, both as a tool for defending against illicit content and as an effective defence tool for young people, such as introducing a ban on profiling. 

Teachers and educators

A back-to-school event was organised by the Ministry of Education and Merit at the beginning of the school year. A two-hour webinar was held for Italian teachers and parents, with presentations from a representative of the Italian Digital Services Coordinator and the legal expert from the Safer Internet Centre.

A pilot project, “DSA Ambassadors,” is being developed for teachers. The project involves implementing training courses, initially targeting ten teachers from selected schools nationwide. The DSA Ambassadors will be asked to organise, at their own institution, a dissemination event for fellow teachers to raise awareness of the DSA. 

Parents and caregivers

 In 2025, the Safer Internet Centre Generazioni Connesse updated the training courses available within the ePolicy tool. A specific module entitled ’Digital Services Act New responsibilities for online platforms, greater transparency and attention to minors’, has been included in the training course targeted at parents. 
The training module was designed with the aim of helping parents become aware of and understand the new forms of protection introduced by the Digital Services Act so that they can be ready to activate them if necessary. The module illustrates the main concepts of the Digital Services Act, who are the stakeholders involved, and what is meant by child protection by design.  Parents are also provided with important information regarding the management of their children's profile settings and procedures for reporting illegal content, which all platforms are now required to provide. 
A PDF version of the booklet ‘The Digital Services Act (DSA) explained’ was also provided in support of the training module.
 

Research

Working with the Digital Service Coordinator

In September 2024, the Safer Internet Centre Italia  organised the event ‘Shaping the future, discovering the Digital Services Act’ at the headquarters of the Ministry of Education and Merit. The seminar was organised with the collaboration and participation of the Italian Communications Authority, which has been designated as national Digital Service Coordinator (DSC). The event was streamed live and is currently available on SIC Italy's YouTube channel.

Collaboration between SIC Italy, the DSC, and the Youth Panel on DSA-related topics (2024-2025)

Between 2024 and 2025, the Italian SIC developed a structured collaboration with the DSC and the Youth Panel (YP) on key themes connected to the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the BIK+ Strategy.
This collaboration aimed to ensure that the implementation of the DSA in Italy reflected a youth rights-based approach, integrating the experiences, expectations, and proposals of young people into national digital policy.

2024 – Institutional dialogue and youth consultation

In July 2024, during a roundtable held at the Giffoni Film Festival, the YP, supported by SIC experts, met with key national institutions, including the DSC, to discuss how the DSA could enhance online safety, privacy protection, and digital well-being for minors.
The dialogue centred around four thematic axes: digital well-being, privacy and safety, e-democracy, and ethics of artificial intelligence, linking them directly to DSA provisions.
Working groups composed of YP members and SIC experts analysed issues such as:
•    the transparency and accountability obligations of online platforms;
•    systems for age verification and parental control;
•    AI-driven risks, including bias, deepfake content, and privacy violations;
•    and the need for digital education and awareness campaigns to support the DSA’s implementation at the user level.
Through this structured process, the YP, in cooperation with the DSC and SIC, developed a set of policy recommendations and questions for institutions, many of which addressed the concrete application of the DSA in Italy. These proposals called for clearer guidelines for platforms, youth participation in digital policy, and joint awareness initiatives targeting parents, educators, and minors. 

2025 – World Cafè 

In 2025, the collaboration evolved into a second phase, marked by the World Café @ GFF 2025 sessions. These workshops brought together the YP, the SIC consortium, and the SIC Advisory Board, including representatives of the DSC, to further explore the intersections between Artificial Intelligence, digital rights, and the DSA.
Four thematic tables guided the discussion:
1.    AI and digital rights of young people
2.    AI, privacy and profiling
3.    AI and education
4.    AI, emotions and onlife relationships

Each table produced youth-generated maps of risks and opportunities related to AI, focusing on transparency, emotional impact, and educational uses of intelligent systems. These outcomes contributed to the ongoing national dialogue on DSA implementation and the ethical governance of digital services affecting minors.
At the same time, three short videos produced by the panelists were previewed, all focusing on the Digital Services Act. 
The videos, available on the SIC Generazioni Connesse YouTube channel, focus on:
- Key aspects of the Digital Services Act
- DSA and reporting
- DSA, disinformation, misinformation and fake news

Interested in learning more about the DSA?

If you are interested in more, explore the DSA for YOUth toolkit to learn how the Digital Services Act (DSA) protects minors by design. There, you will find a family-friendly booklet explaining the DSA guidelines on what online platforms should do to keep kids and teens safe online, easy-to-read explainers, a quiz, and other resources.

Interested in learning more about activities in Italy?

Find more information about the work of theItalian Safer Internet Centre, including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline, and youth participation services – or find similar information for Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe.