20 years of working “Together for a better internet”  

This edition was particularly special as it marked the 20th anniversary of the celebration of this milestone event, and served as an opportunity to reflect upon the impact of this observance over the last two decades, as well as the recent important developments in EU legislation, such as the new European strategy for a better internet for kids (BIK+), the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles. 

Vice-President Šuica and Commissioner Breton both acknowledged the day with dedicated video messages addressing children’s digital rights and habits, online opportunities and risks, the importance of media literacy skills, and urging policymakers, young people themselves, and all other stakeholders involved to gather and continue discussing how to concretely make the internet a better place for children. 

An updated SID celebratory video was published, gathering over 2,500 views on YouTube alone, and over 20,000 views through the dissemination on the SID social media channels over the course of just one day. 

On SID, Better Internet for Kids (BIK) launched the new BIK Teacher corner, a special section of the Better Internet for Kids website meant for teachers, educators and other adults working with children and young people, where they can find free information, advice, and suggested resources to help to educate and support youth to safely and positively navigate their digital world. These resources are split into two key types - learning modules and deep dives - and will be regularly updated to reflect emerging issues, and offer appropriate support to teachers and educators. 

A series of videos were published featuring BIK Youth Ambassadors and youth panellists from different countries in Europe exchanging views on their priorities online, and their perspective on how to ensure safer online experiences for all in the future. 

Furthermore, the Better Internet for Kids annual report 2022 was published on the occasion of SID outlining the ongoing commitment to keeping Europe’s children and young people safe online through long-standing programmes and funding. As 2022 was declared the European Year of Youth, a child-friendly infographic is also available, summarising the main highlights of youth involvement and participation in 2022. The efforts undertaken in 2022 to include children and young people at the table where policymakers are discussing future measures, and the need to voice their opinions and thoughts, continue in 2023. Similarly, a child-friendly version and a videogame inspired by the European Declaration on Digital Rights and Principles were launched by the EC on the occasion of SID, to help young people better assimilate this piece of legislation. 

Traffic on the Safer Internet Day (SID) website

On the day of SID itself, www.saferinternetday.org received over 28,000 visits and over 73,000 page views. Traffic to the SID portal in the month leading up to SID (from 06/01 to 06/02) counted over 101,000 visits and over 304,000 page views. This trend reflects our continuing strategy of building awareness of SID – and driving traffic to the site – in advance of the day through an extensive and sustained social media campaign, using both organic and promoted posts, with the aim that stakeholders deliver (or get involved in) local actions on the day.

Summary of the activity on social media on the day

The hashtag #SaferInternetDay gained over 4,000 mentions and more than 42 million impressions across several social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit) and the web on the Safer Internet Day itself. 

Twitter – According to preliminary Twitter Analytics, on Tuesday, 7 February 2023, the @SafeInternetDay account received 145,226 organic impressions and more than 1.4 million organic and promoted impressions. Over the week leading up to Safer Internet Day (30/01-06/02), the @SafeInternetDay account received over 226,800 organic and promoted impressions. 

Our top Tweet was this “#SaferInternetDay!” post with the SID video on the morning of SID (72,198 impressions, 2,551 engagements, 11,798 video views), and this “#SaferInternetDay post” to kick-start the day (35,525 impressions, 860 engagements). 

Followers - Another metric worth mentioning is that the @SafeInternetDay Twitter account gained over 830 followers in the week leading up to Safer Internet Day, and currently counts over 49,000 followers. 

Facebook – During the week leading up to SID 2023 (30/01-06/02), the Safer Internet Day Facebook page organically reached 22,227 people, and on the day itself - 38,978 people. In addition, figures pertaining to reach and engagement on the Safer Internet Day Facebook page are expected to remain high in the following days due to the post-SID activities. 

Our most successful Facebook post was the "Happy Safer Internet Day" post (27,034 people reached, 274 reactions, 105 link clicks and 116 shares). 

Although we do not have a presence on the platform, the hashtag #SaferInternetDay has collected 69.8 million views on TikTok (although it is not possible to determine which of these views specifically relates to the SID 2023 campaign). 

Instagram – Although we do not maintain an Instagram profile for SID, there are now over 52,500 posts on Instagram featuring the #saferinternetday hashtag (up from 40,000 last year). 

Influential supporters

On social media, SID enjoyed widespread support from the EU institutions, with posts by the European Commission, Commissioner Dubravka Suica, Commissioner Thierry Breton, Roberto Viola, the Greens, the EPP group, European Parliament, BetterNet4EU, Digital EU, the Child Rights Intergroup in the European Parliament, Caterina Chinnici, Hilde Vautmans, Europol, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training, HaDEA, and DG Migration and Home Affairs.

Many other influential supporters also helped spread the word about SID on Twitter, such as French President Emmanuel Macron, the World Health Organisation, the United Nations, UNICEF, Microsoft, World Bank Digital Development, Voices of Youth, UN Women, UN Cyber, Google, the Belgian Federal Police, the Dutch National Security Centre, the UN Youth Envoy, the Children’s Society, Anti-Bullying Pro, Sonia Livingstone, CO:RE, the University of Oxford, the 5Rights Foundation, Int’l Telecommunication Union, LEGO Group, INHOPE, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, Ofcom, Internet Matters, UN development, Vodafone UK, BBC, Discord, Norton, Minecraft, Twitch, Xiaomi, Council of Europe, the Australian eSafety Commissioner, the Prime Minister of Australia and Melbourne City FC. 

Safer Internet Day in the press

Articles about Safer Internet Day were published in BBC Newsround, 20 Minutes, EU reporter, World Economic Forum, UN News, Techwire Asia, Independent UK, Mashable Benelux, Apple Insider, CBS News NY, Spiceworks, News18, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Zawya, Corriere della Sera, la Repubblica, Media Update, Outlook India, Press and Journal, Times Now, RTBF Belgium, Irish Mirror, IT-Online, to quote only a few.

Save the date for SID 2024!

Planning for Safer Internet Day 2024 has already started! Next year, SID will take place on Tuesday, 6 February 2024 when we will again join “Together for a better internet”. Campaigning activities will start from September 2023 onwards.

What next?

We’ll be continuing to track the events of the day and will be compiling a fuller report next month. In the meantime, keep checking the Safer Internet Day website for the latest information, where’ll well also be adding articles showcasing the many successes of the day.

Please also visit the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) portal – and subscribe to the quarterly BIK bulletin – to keep up to date on safer and better internet issues all year round, or follow us on our social channels on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

If you’d like to get in touch, please contact us at saferinternetday@betterinternetforkids.eu.