Highlights from this year’s Safer Internet Day

The 22nd edition of Safer Internet Day was once again packed with new initiatives and activities. First of all, this edition has a completely new appearance: as part of the wider redevelopment of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) platform, there’s now a brand new Safer Internet Day website, and more importantly, a new SID mascot, Ally! They are fast, brave, well-equipped, and tech-savvy – a true companion for young people in the digital world. To reflect these changes, a new SID video was also produced. 

In addition, throughout January and February, the AdWiseOnline campaign Play smart, spend wisely – mind the hidden costs has been running, with a series of resources released in the week leading up to SID. These include learning modules, webinars, a podcast, youth videos, and interactive activities. With a reach of over 250,000 parents and educators, the campaign aims to empower young people playing games online know their rights and recognise manipulative in-game marketing tactics.

Furthermore, as part of its work on child safety online, the Commission engages with children and young people, empowering and involving them directly, as demonstrated in the first evaluation of the Better Internet for Kids Strategy, two years after its initial adoption. 

With the enforcement of the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Commission has already initiated significant measures to safeguard children online, including launching investigations into online platforms related to the protection of minors, and is currently formulating guidelines for all online platforms to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security for young users. The DSA helps protect minors online in a number of ways, which you can explore in the user-friendly booklet.

The BIK annual report 2024 was also published as part of the celebrations, highlighting the main achievements and successes of the past year. An accompanying infographic places a specific spotlight on last year's youth activities: for example, they were once again heavily involved in the planning, preparation and delivery of yet another successfully youth-led Safer Internet Forum (SIF). The efforts undertaken in 2024 to highlight and support the learning opportunities available to all in the digital world, and the importance of ensuring that the largest possible number of users, and especially children and young people, are adequately equipped with the skills and competences they need to handle digital technologies responsibly and respectfully will continue in 2025.

Influential supporters

SID enjoyed widespread support from the EU institutions, with a press release from the European Commission - including a dedicated video message from Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, and a feature on the EU Learning corner. On social media, posts by Digital EU, BetterNet4EU, Digital Skills EU, EU Code Week, Europol, EC3, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, the DG Migration & Home Affairs, DG Consumer Affairs, Council of Europe Children and HaDEA celebrated the day.

Many other influential supporters also helped spread the word about SID online, such as the United Nations, UNICEF, EuroChild, Minecraft, Microsoft’s VP and Chief Digital Safety Officer, Snap, Google India, YouTube, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn (Australia), X Italy, Discord, the UN Office on Drugs & Crime, UNDP, the World Economic Forum, Sonia Livingstone, 5RightsFoundation, the Oxford Internet Institute, the International Telecommunication Union (and Secretary General Doreen Bogdan-Martin), Video Games Europe, INHOPE, MovieStarPlanet, eTwinning Italy, the CyberPeace Foundation, Action Innocence Monaco, Internet Matters, Interpol, Norton, Orange France, French Minister of Home Affairs, Italian Police, Italian Ministry of Education, Ombudsman for Children Ireland, the Department of Education of Ireland, Catalan Authority on Data Protection, Surfshark, PureVPN, Bitdefender, Vodafone Foundation, ECPAT International, Safe Search Kids, Yubo, the Internet Watch Foundation, the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Australian eSafety Commissioner, Habbo, the WeProtect Global Alliance and Brussels Capital Region among many others.

Safer Internet Day in the press

Articles about Safer Internet Day were published in the BBC, Computer Weekly, Medium, 20 Minutes, Council of Europe Newsroom on children's rights, Child in the city, Xbox Wire, The Independent UK, Luxembourg Times, News18, Süddeutsche Zeitung, GenDigital, Corriere della Sera, Il Sole 24 Ore, Trend Micro, The Economic Times (India Times), Daily News Tanzania, Times Now, RTE.ie, Techbuzz Ireland, IT Security Guru, Heise Online, to quote only a few.

Save the date for SID 2026!

We hope you will join us again next year! We invite you to already save the date for Safer Internet Day 2026 with a global day of focus on Tuesday, 10 February 2026, and events and activities taking place throughout the whole month.

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 we’ll 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 X, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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