Better Internet for Kids

Norway

The Norwegian SIC is coordinated by the Norwegian Media Authority, who also runs the awareness centre. The Norwegian Red Cross operates the helpline service Kors på halsen (Cross My Heart) and also facilitates the youth panel activities of the SIC. Norwegian SIC has no hotline as part of the consortium due to national legislation. It is solely the police that can be responsible for following up on criminal acts in Norway. As such, The Norwegian Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS/Kripos) fulfils the function of a national hotline.

It was noted during the cluster meeting that the Norwegian SIC focuses on several priority areas, namely:

• Children and young people’s digital rights;
• Disinformation;
• Harmful content and design;
• Youth participation.

The work is carried out across five main target groups: children (9-12 year olds), adolescents (13-15 year olds), parents, professionals working with children, parents in minority language groups. The awareness centre also highlighted some of the work they carry out. These included: 

• Robust, resigned or numbis a qualitative research study from 2023 which was carried out with 10 young people (aged 13-15) and their parents. The purpose of this study was to gain more knowledge about the kinds of content that young people are exposed to online.
• Hooked is an escape room about digital life. It is a game-based teaching resource to help children and young people to understand more about online marketing and their own media habits. Children and young people in Norway said that they wanted to be able to log off more often. A dedicated screen time campaign followed up the escape room activity and contained short videos with practical advice around screen time.

In terms of youth participation, the youth panel facilitated by the helpline currently consists of 10 young people between the ages of 14 and 17. They are from the Oslo area and closely involved with the helpline. This close relationship and the geographical proximity allows the helpline to involve young people in their projects, invite them to their meetings and give floor to raise their opinions.

On the other hand, this localised youth panel design creates the challenge of working with a non-representative group of young people for a large country such as Norway. To meet this challenge, The SIC also carries out workshops in schools and youth clubs in other parts of the country.  

In addition, during their awareness centre presentation, the Norwegian Media Authority also noted that, in the current project cycle, young people will be involved as co-researchers in mapping youth’s online media use and digital skills. In doing so, the Authority will consult various groups depending on the target audience and the initiative or study they are working on.

The Norwegian helpline is operated by the Red Cross and the service is available from 14:00 until 22:00 every day and users can contact via chat or phone and can now also email via a new website that has been launched which was created with young people. This contains a forum for peer support which is moderated on a daily basis.

Sweden

Sweden's Safer Internet Centre, SIC Sweden, is operated by the government agency Mediemyndigheten (Swedish Agency for the Media) together with the NGOs Bris (helpline) and ECPAT Sweden (hotline).

The current project period for the Swedish SIC started in January 2025 and will run until June 2026. A new government authority – the Swedish Agency for the Media was established in 2024 and coordinates the project. This was a merger of the Swedish Media Council and the Swedish Broadcasting Authority.

SIC Sweden carries out various research projects, some of which were highlighted during this cluster meeting. These included: 

• Summary of the report Gaming disorder – a research overview
• Children and young people's influencers – a focus group study
• In-between community and vulnerability - a report on digital media and mental ill-health among young girls with NDD

In terms of other awareness raising work the following resources were highlighted: 

• “Check the game” is a website where parents and professionals can check out video games that their children are asking to play – it will show the age restrictions and any challenges that are contained within the game. This was done in collaboration with the University of Lund.
• A collaboration with Attention has developed quizzes and films on TikTok aimed at girls with NDD and there are links to Bris and other support services so girls can get help when they are doing the quizzes. There are many guides for parents and carers which are available on the website.
• A podcast about influencers with the Swedish Internet Foundation is aimed at parents and carers along with some learning materials for children and young people too.
• There has also been a podcast on algorithms and eating disorder. The SIC teamed up with the eating disorder podcast which has been a great success with over 1,700 users listening to the content so far.

The youth panel of SIC Sweden was established in 2023, and gathered together in four meetings during the current project cycle. The young people in the panel represent twelve youth organisations. The members of the panel are elected by their organisation to represent them in the Swedish SIC youth panel. The SIC aims to reach to a wider network of young people through this system. It was also noted that the SIC is preparing to work with a new youth panel for the new project cycle (2025-2026). 

The helpline Bris was founded in 1971 to provide support for children and adults. There is in person support available for groups or individuals for children and their families. The helpline also provides support for those working with children and young people. The helpline is a general helpline and is fully anonymous. Support is available 24/7 via chat, SMS, phone or email. There are 45 full time professional counsellors and 4 of these are funded through the BIK project.

The SIC’s hotline is operated by ECPAT since 2005. It has been a member of the INHOPE network since 2014 and participates in the project Arachnid since 2018. 

ECPAT also has a helpline service named Ditt ECPAT since 2020 where children can anonymously chat with advisors about sexual abuse, and since 2021, the ECPAT hotline also helps children who contact the helpline with removing illegal images as well as reporting accounts on social media platforms which has become faster and more efficient since they became a trusted flagger in July 2024.

Further information about the Norwegian and Swedish Safer Internet Centres can be found on the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) public portal, including links to its national websites and other contact information. Similar information can be found on the BIK portal for all Safer Internet Centres in Europe.