Better Internet for Kids

Children’s online protection, empowerment and participation are now firmly on the policy agenda across Europe. Digital technologies are deeply integrated in children’s everyday lives, creating important opportunities for learning, social connection and access to information. At the same time, they can expose children to online harms, including cyberbullying, grooming and harassment, with possible effects on physical health and emotional well-being. Concerns are widespread: a 2025 Eurobarometer survey found that more than nine in ten respondents across the EU27 considered action on children’s mental health, cyberbullying and online harassment, and age assurance as necessary. Against this backdrop, all participating countries in the 2026 BIK Policy monitor address these issues in some form in national policy, while the preliminary findings also point to a shift towards more organised and accountable policy approaches.

Drawing on the preliminary findings of the 2026 BIK Policy monitor report, this article explores not only whether governments are paying attention to children’s digital lives, but how they are organising this work in practice. It first looks at the extent to which children’s digital lives are treated as a policy priority, then considers the different ways in which countries structure BIK-related policies, and finally highlights the growing importance of governance, coordination and children’s rights within national policy frameworks.

Children’s digital lives as a policy priority

Within the BIK Policy monitor, the policy prominence of children’s online protection, empowerment and participation is captured under the indicator on policy priority, which examines the extent to which these issues are reflected in national policies.

According to the 2026 BIK Policy monitor, all EU Member States, including Iceland and Norway, address BIK-related issues in some form in national policy. Eleven countries report that these issues are comprehensively addressed in national laws, regulations and policies, while seventeen describe them as an important and emerging policy priority, which is only partially covered in national policies. In only one country, the issues addressed by the BIK+ strategy are present in national policy, but are not considered a priority. Taken together, these findings show that children’s digital lives are no longer a marginal policy issue across Europe and that children’s digital well-being is treated as an important priority in most countries.

At the same time, the overall picture is one of consolidation. Compared with previous editions of the BIK Policy monitor, the overall profile remains relatively stable. National governments are not starting from zero, but instead, building on existing efforts and moving towards more structured and formalised policy responses. As the report notes, many countries are stepping up measures to promote online safety and developing more comprehensive legislative and policy frameworks. This evolution is taking place in a context shaped by the implementation and enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA), as well as growing concerns about AI, digital well-being, and children’s rights in the digital environment.

Different ways of structuring BIK-related polices

Across Europe, countries are pursuing similar objectives under the BIK+ strategy. However, they are doing so through different institutional arrangements. The 2026 Policy monitor shows that national responses to children’s digital lives are organised in diverse ways, reflecting differences in legal systems, administrative structures, and wider policy contexts. In other words, the policy landscape is plural rather than uniform. What countries share is a commitment to addressing the three BIK pillars of protection, empowerment and participation. What differs is how these priorities are organised, embedded, and coordinated within national policy frameworks.

Under the Policy monitor indicator on policy integration, which assesses how the three BIK+ pillars are organised within national policy frameworks, only two countries report a single overarching policy framework covering children’s digital protection, empowerment and participation. By contrast, nineteen countries state that these issues are addressed through separate, dedicated policies, while eight report that they are covered through broader strategic frameworks, such as national digital strategies or wider children’s rights policies. This confirms that, while BIK-related issues are firmly on the agenda across Europe, countries continue to structure them through different policy architectures.

The national examples reported in the Policy monitor help illustrate this diversity. Norway is one of the clearest examples of an overarching framework, with its White Paper on children’s upbringing in a digital society, explicitly addressing protection, empowerment and participation. Belgium (Flanders), by contrast, provides an example of a more targeted action-plan approach through its Veilig Online (“Safe Online”), which follows the three BIK pillars while linking them to concrete national priorities. Other countries integrate digital issues into broader strategic or rights-based frameworks. In Latvia, for example, digital safety and participation are embedded within the Guidelines for the Protection of Children’s Rights 2022-2027, while Portugal’s strategy for the rights of children and young people includes “Security in the Digital Age” as a dedicated strategic area.

This diversity should not be read as a sign of uneven commitment. Instead, it reflects the fact that national contexts differ and that governments are using different routes to cover the same broad policy objectives. The Policy monitor therefore suggests that there is no single ideal model of policy integration. What matters is not whether countries adopt one overarching framework or several connected policies, but whether the three BIK pillars are addressed in a coherent way within national policy systems.

From policy design into delivery

The effective implementation of BIK-related policies depends not only on policy design but also on how governments organise delivery in practice. A policy framework requires leadership, coordination, and implementation mechanisms that can translate broad objectives into concrete action. Together, these elements help make policy framework operational and support the delivery of protection, empowerment and participation for children in the digital environment.  

One of the clearest signs of this shift is the growing use of formal action plans. According to the 2026 BIK Policy monitor, thirteen countries now have a defined national action plan on children and the digital environment, with features such as timelines, assigned responsibilities or key performance indicators. This is up from ten countries in 2024. A further eight countries report that one or more programmes of action are underway, even if these are less formal in nature. Taken together, these findings suggest that BIK-related policies are becoming more focused on delivery and clearer in how responsibility is assigned.  

Central to the successful operationalisation of these policies is the leadership structure. The dominant approach across countries is distributed leadership, with eighteen countries reporting that responsibility for policy development sits across different ministries according to area of specialisation, compared with six countries that have a single central lead body. This underlines the extent to which the BIK agenda is now treated as a transversal policy issue, spanning areas such as education, justice, digital affairs and child protection. At the same time, less defined leadership arrangements are becoming less common: the number of countries reporting ad hoc or no specific leadership has declined from ten to five since the previous cycle.

The report also points to stronger coordination. Here, coordination refers to the existence of a clearly defined body, agency or mechanism that helps align actors and support implementation across government. The number of countries reporting such a function has increased from eight in 2024 to ten in 2026, while the number reporting no coordination mechanism at all has fallen from six to two. The 2026 picture therefore suggests not only more policy activity, but greater institutionalisation, with more structured and accountable approaches to governing children’s digital lives.  

A stronger rights-based approach

Children’s rights are becoming a more visible and explicit feature of national policy frameworks on the digital environment. According to the 2026 BIK Policy monitor, fourteen countries now explicitly recognise children’s rights in the digital environment in their national policies, while a further six report that more explicit rights-based approaches are under development. This makes children’s rights one of the clearest indicators of how national policy framing is evolving. Rather than addressing children’s digital lives only through the lens of safety or risk management, more countries are beginning to place rights considerations at the centre of their policy response.  

This matters because the shift is not only administrative. It reflects a broader change in how children are understood in digital policy: not simply as users in need of protection, but as rights holders whose interests must be respected across the digital environment. In this context, the report notes that many national frameworks now refer to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s General Comment No. 25 as an important legal and normative reference point. The growing prominence of children’s rights therefore suggests a more balanced approach to policy, linking protection more clearly with empowerment and participation. In this sense, the stronger visibility of children’s rights helps anchor digital policy in a more holistic understanding of children’s place in the online environment.

Conclusion

The preliminary findings of the 2026 BIK Policy monitor suggest that children’s digital lives are now firmly established within national policy agendas across Europe. The central question is no longer whether these issues are being addressed, but how countries are choosing to structure their response. What emerges from the report is not a single model, but a shared movement towards more intentional, visible and accountable policy frameworks.

In that sense, the main development is one of policy maturation. Children’s online protection, empowerment and participation are increasingly being treated not as isolated concerns, but as part of a broader and more coherent public policy agenda. At the same time, the growing visibility of children’s rights in national frameworks points to an important shift in policy framing: children are being recognised not only as users in need of protection, but as rights holders in the digital environment. The key issue, therefore, is not uniformity of approach, but whether national policy gives protection, empowerment, participation and rights a clear and meaningful place within its overall framework.

Further details will be available when the 2026 BIK Policy monitor report is published on 11 May 2026.