Insafe Weekly Update

The new call “Ensuring comprehensive geographical coverage of the network of Safer Internet Centres (SICs)” has now opened; the submission deadline is Thursday, 1 October 2026 (17:00 Brussels time). All relevant information regarding the call is available on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.

Now in its seventh edition, the 2026 Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Policy monitor report provides a comparative overview of how the BIK+ strategy, launched by the European Commission in 2022, is being implemented across the EU Member States, Iceland, and Norway. It highlights national efforts to ensure children and young people are protected, empowered, and respected online, tracking progress, challenges, and good practices across the strategy’s three pillars: safe digital experiences, digital empowerment, and active participation.

The 2026 report highlights that policies promoting digital protection, empowerment, and active participation are increasingly prioritised across European countries, and continue to evolve in response to a changing digital environment. This includes rising concerns about the negative impact of digital technology and addictive design on children’s mental health and well-being, as well as the rise of cyberbullying in online spaces.

This year’s report also notes an increase in efforts to strengthen the evidence base and to incorporate children’s rights considerations.

The full report is available via the Better Internet for Kids Knowledge hub.

In the context of the second EU-wide evaluation of the BIK+ strategy, we will once again carry out consultations with various stakeholders, including children and young people.

As indicated in the last Insafe Steering Committee meeting, and some of the Insafe Working Group meetings, we intend to actively involve SICs in the BIK+ strategy evaluation going forward, given their instrumental position, relevant expertise, and access to key national stakeholders.

We kindly request that SICs confirm their interest and availability to support the evaluation by organising consultations in their respective countries. For the purpose of this activity, consultations with children and young people will take the form of focus groups. SICs will be asked to organise one or more focus groups with children and young people under the age of 18, with a maximum of 10 participants per focus group (ideally 8).

To facilitate the focus groups with children and young people, SICs will receive all the relevant materials in August 2026. These will indicatively include a consultation protocol (in English), a child-friendly explainer of the consultation (in the national language), a discussion guide (in the national language) and a reporting template (in English). SICs will be kindly asked to organise the consultations and submit the reports to EUN by Friday, 16 October 2026 at the latest.

Please confirm your interest and availability by sending an email to BIKevaluation@eun.org by Friday, 29 May.

EUN will host an information session about the consultation activities after sharing the materials indicated above. In case of questions before this session, please also contact BIKevaluation@eun.org.

The dates for upcoming early warning meetings for the rest of 2026 and the first part of 2027 for both awareness centres and helplines have been updated and can be found in the BIK community (login first).

• Awareness dates
• Helpline dates.

For any further information please contact Karl.

There will be a meeting to discuss how we can advance response to sadistic online exploitation in networked youth environments which will take place on Thursday, 11th June 2026 at 1500 CEST. We will hear from Amanda Goharian from Thorn who will share insights from their recent reportwhich colleagues from Child Focus also contributed to.

You can use this link to join the meeting. If you need any further information please contact Karl.

SICs are invited to attend an online meeting where the European Commission will provide an update on ongoing EU policy developments on age verification to several representatives of civil society. The meeting will take place on Thursday 21 May from 14.30 to 16.30 (CEST) and will focus on the EU age verification solution: its features, added value and state of play, followed by a discussion. We will also present the recently adopted recommendation for Member States to implement the solution at national level by the end of the year. You can access the agenda here.

Please register by Wednesday 13 May 16.00 CESTto receive the link to join the meeting.

For further information, please contact Rima.

Many thanks to everyone who attended the recent helpline early warning meeting. You can find a report from the meeting and a link to the recording in the BIK community (login first).

The next meeting will take place on Wednesday, 3 June 2026 at 11:00 CEST. Use this link to join the meeting.

Please contact Karl for any further information on helpline early warning meetings.

Many thanks to those who attended the meeting last week. You can find a report from the meeting along with a link to the recording in the BIK community (login first).

The next online meeting for youth coordinators will take place this Thursday, 21 May 2026 at 11.00 CEST; access the meeting using this link.The meeting will focus on the upcoming second evaluation of the BIK+ strategy. Youth coordinators will be invited to share lessons learned from the first evaluation.

A reminder that you can find reports from previous youth coordinator meetings in the BIK community (login first).

For further information, please contact Carolina and Chiara.

There will be a meeting with the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) on Thursday, 21 May 2026 at 11:00 CEST. CCDH is a not-for-profit NGO that aims to hold social media and AI companies accountable for the online harm that is encountered on their platforms. They conduct research and run campaigns to raise awareness of some of the most common problems (e.g. X recommending explicit content to 13-year-olds).

The meeting will particularly focus on their research into AI chatbots assisting users in planning violent attacks and how ChatGPT betrays vulnerable teens by encouraging dangerous behaviour.

Use this link to join the meeting.

For further information, please contact Karl.

Please note, this item relates to INHOPE work linked with the
current BIK project (2025-2027).

INHOPE's Expert Insights webinar series is back for 2026 with three sessions diving into critical and emerging topics in child online safety, featuring leading voices from the OECD, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Tech Coalition, Discord, and GIFCT.

All sessions are free, online, and open to approved registrants. Planned webinars are as follows:

• Wednesday, 27 May 2026, 16:00 CEST: Understanding online subcultures of nihilistic violence
• Thursday, 25 June 2026, 16:00 CEST: Tackling the sadistic online exploitation of children in online gaming environments

Find out more about the webinar series here.

Access the full BIK news article archive here.

Explore the full collection of Safer Internet Day (SID) 2026 articles here.

Please contact the BIK content mailbox with any article submissions or queries.

• A reminder that reports from online meetings for awareness centres and helplines are now available in the BIK community, including those from early warning meetings for both strands.
• Safer Internet Centres continue to upload resources to the BIK community resource repository: explore or upload your SIC's resources here (alternatively, access the public resource directory here).
• Equally, SICs have been uploading new helpline case studies: explore or upload your SIC's case studies here.
• Please refer to the BIK platform user guides for support with regular tasks (such as resource and helpline case study uploads).
• The Insafe induction manual also provides a good background on the tools and services available to network members, the various commitments you have as a network member (including a handy checklist by strand), and contact information for team members.

Alternatively, we are happy to schedule short online support calls at any time. Please use the contact form on the BIK platform or contact the BIK support mailbox initially. We will then schedule a call at a mutually convenient time.

Please remember to log in to access any BIK community links.

• Better Internet for Kids (BIK):
  better-internet-for-kids. europa.eu; #BIK; #BIKbulletin
• BIK strategy (BIK+):
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/bik/bik-plus-strategy; #BIKplus
• Safer Internet Forum (SIF):
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/sif; #SaferInternetForum; #SIF2026
• BIK Knowledge hub:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/knowledge-hub; #BIKPolicyMap
• BIK Youth:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/bik-youth; #BIKyouth
• Safer Internet Day (SID):
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/saferinternetday; #SaferInternetDay; #SID2026; #SaferInternetDay2026; #SID2027; #SaferInternetDay2027
• DSA for YOUth campaign:
  #DSAforYOUth; #DSA
• Project Facebook profiles:
  Insafe, Safer Internet Day, Insafe network closed Facebook group, INHOPE
• Project X (formerly Twitter) profiles:
  @insafenetwork; @safeinternetday; @BIK_youth; @inhope_pr
• Project LinkedIn profile:
  Better Internet for Kids