Insafe Weekly Update

An online information session, titled Accelerating the best use of technologies, will take place on Wednesday, 14 May 2025, from 10:00 - 12:00 CEST*; use this link to join. 

(* Please note that the awareness early warning meeting scheduled for 11:00 CEST on the same day has now been moved to 11:00 CEST on Friday, 16 May 2025 (see below)).

This HaDEA session is being organised in response to the call DIGITAL-2025-BESTUSE-08: Accelerating the best use of technologies, launched under the Digital Europe Work Programme 2025-2027. Participants will have the opportunity to learn all about the calls, the application process, and join Q&A sessions.

The session will cover the following two topics:

• DIGITAL-2025-BESTUSE-08-NETWORKSICs: Network of Safer Internet Centres
  The objective of the topic is to continue to support national Safer Internet Centres (SICs), to provide online safety information, educational resources, public awareness tools and counselling and reporting services through dedicated helplines and hotlines for young people, teachers/educators, and parents/carers.
  Budget: € 42 million
• DIGITAL-2025-BESTUSE-08-FACTCHECKERS: European Network of Factcheckers
  The objective of the topic is to support the growth of a European Network of Factcheckers, which will deepen the language coverage and operational capacity of fact-checking in Europe.
  Budget: €5 million

The submission of applications for this call opened on Tuesday, 15 April 2025 and will close on Tuesday, 2 September 2025 (17:00:00 CEST).

Three years after its launch, the first comprehensive evaluation of the European strategy for a Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) marks a key milestone in assessing progress toward a safer, more empowering digital environment for children. Drawing on input from over 750 children and young people, including those from vulnerable groups, and more than 360 adult stakeholders across sectors, the evaluation offers a 360-degree view of the strategy’s achievements and ongoing challenges, reaffirming the importance of inclusive, expert-informed policymaking in shaping Europe’s digital future.

The first evaluation confirms that BIK+ has made a meaningful impact, while also highlighting the need for continued, coordinated efforts in an increasingly complex digital landscape. It emphasises that building a better internet goes beyond protection: it requires active participation, education, and shared responsibility, with children’s voices at the centre. The findings provide a roadmap for strengthening the BIK+ strategy to continue to serve Europe’s youngest digital citizens. 

A heartfelt thank you to all network members who helped gather children’s views in their countries; your efforts were essential in ensuring the evaluation truly reflects young people’s voices. Your commitment is deeply appreciated.

Read the full evaluation report on the BIK public portal, and read a supplementary article here.

Now in its sixth edition, the 2025 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 2025 report highlights the need for balanced progress across the BIK+ pillars, calling for integrated national strategies, improved monitoring, and greater youth involvement. The full report, country profiles, interactive map data tool, and at-a-glance index charts are available via the Better Internet for Kids Knowledge hub.

EUN is coordinating the digi.well project, a two-year funded European Union project under the Erasmus+ programme. The project started in January 2025 and aims to explore, develop and foster a whole-school approach to well-being in a digital world. Together with project partners from Slovenia, Serbia, and Portugal, EUN is conducting a series of focus group consultations with pupils, educators, and policymakers to discuss their perceptions, opinions, and needs regarding digital well-being. The consultations will contribute to the development of a consolidated scoping report.
 
For the purpose of the focus group consultation, EUN is aiming to involve 20 young people from across Europe between the ages of 11 and 16, with an equal gender representation, to discuss digital well-being. The focus group will last 90 minutes, and it will take place online on Thursday, 5 June 2025, from 17:30 to 19:00 CEST. The focus group will be led by EUN moderators, who will ensure that everyone is able to contribute to the discussion. The youth participants will be asked a set of questions to facilitate their sharing their opinions or experiences on the topic of digital well-being. No prior knowledge or preparation is needed for the consultation. Consultation sessions are planned to be held in English. As we are aware that the topic of digital well-being could be sensitive, EUN facilitators will make sure that the environment will be respectful, non-judgmental, and open during the focus group consultation.

If you are interested, please put forward your youth candidates (max two per country) to Chiara and Maria by the close of business on Wednesday, 21 May 2025. Once the call for participation has closed, we will inform SICs of the final group composition and selected youth.

As some of you know, we have established a link with Telegram now and are moving towards them sharing a trusted flagger contact with the network. If you have any cases that need to be escalated in the meantime or need any further information, please contact Karl. You can find a guide to Telegram moderation in the BIK community (login first).

Please note that the date of this meeting has been changed due to a clash with the HaDEA session, Accelerating the best use of technologies (see above).

The next early warning meeting for awareness centres will now take place on Friday, 16 May 2025 at 11:00 CEST; use this link to join the meeting. All colleagues are welcome regardless of whether you have anything to share. For any further information, please contact Karl.

Many thanks to everyone who joined the recent online meeting with Meta. You can find a report from the meeting in the BIK community (login first), along with a link to a recording of the meeting. If you have any issues that you would like to raise with Meta, including any cases that you feel have not been dealt with correctly, then please share details of these with Karl, who will collate these so that colleagues from Meta can look into what has happened.

There will be an online meeting with Apple on Tuesday, 3 June 2025 at 16:30 CEST. This will be an opportunity to hear some updates from the Apple team about trust and safety issues. Use this link to join the meeting. For any further information, please contact Karl.

The next helpline early warning meeting will be held on Wednesday, 18 June 2025 at 11:00 CEST; join the meeting using this link. Please contact Karl for any further information.

Please note, this item relates to wider INHOPE work not linked with the BIK Phase 6 project, and is provided here for information purposes only

The full schedule for INHOPE’s Expert Insights 2025 series is now available. This webinar series, supported by INHOPE’s long-time partner Resolver Trust & Safety, runs from April to July with four expert-led sessions for professionals tackling online child protection. The two first webinars have already taken place, but two more are coming up:

• Wednesday, 21 May 2025 – this session will discuss how platforms can strengthen their intelligence and risk detection strategies, with insights from Roblox.
• Tuesday, 8 July 2025 – this session will explore the role of financial intelligence in detecting, investigating, and preventing child exploitation, featuring experts from CashApp.

If you work in trust and safety, policy, law enforcement, or child protection, you won’t want to miss this series.

Save these dates and register for the upcoming webinar on the INHOPE website.

The annual European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) is taking place this week, from 12-14 May2025, in Strasbourg, France and online under the theme of Safeguarding human rights by balancing regulation and innovation. Registration is free but mandatory, including for remote participation.

SIC Lithuania is inviting Youth Panel members for a Safer Internet Camp in Lithuania. The camp will take place from 2-5 July 2025 in Klaipėda, Lithuania, in an official campsite for youth (with bungalows, canteen and other equipment) near the seaside. The goal of the camp is to create new international connections between the youth and to foster exchange of ideas in a non-formal context.

The participation fee (which includes accommodation, food and activities) and travel costs should be covered by the participants. The recommended age for participation is 12-18 years old. Youth can be accompanied by parents or SIC chaperones. During the camp, the youth will have assigned supervisors, and chaperone participation is voluntary. For more information about the camp or logistics, please contact Liudas Mikalkevicius.

Some of you may recall Tech Matters, who spoke at the TM in Amsterdam and who are working with helplines on case management systems...

Tech Matters invites interested SICS and SIC+ members to join for a virtual premiere of “1515, Línea Libre”, a documentary highlighting its partnership with CHI member Fundación Para La Confianza, which runs the national child helpline 1515, Línea Libre in Chile. This film is a product of the Solutions Storytelling Project, a Skoll Foundation-supported initiative from the Video Consortium. 

Following the premiere, there will be a panel discussion between filmmaker Nicole Kramm, Fundación Para La Confianza, and Tech Matters to discuss the state of child welfare in Chile and how programmes like Línea Libre, in partnership with Tech Matters, are critical to addressing gaps in mental health support and crisis intervention for Chilean communities.

The session will take place next Monday, 19 May 2025 at 22:00 CEST; find futher information and register here.

The World Anti-Bullying Forum will take place in Stavanger, Norway, from 11-13 June 2025. The full programme will be shared very soon, and there are already around 800 registered participants. Find more information on the WABF website.

Articles

• The BIK+ strategy turns three
• BIK Policy monitor report 2025 published: advancing the BIK+ vision across Europe
• First evaluation of the BIK+ strategy released: children’s voices and expert insights shaping Europe’s digital future

Access the full BIK news article archive here.

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

Recently uploaded:

• Online meeting with Meta - May 2025
• Information from Telegram

Various reports from online meetings for awareness centres and helplines are now available in the BIK community (login first).

Need help with the BIK platform?
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 in the first instance, and we will schedule a call at a mutually convenient time.

Please note the updated URLs for the new BIK platform:

• 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; #SIF2024, #SaferInternetForum
• 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; #Pledge2Youth
• Safer Internet Day (SID):
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/saferinternetday; #SaferInternetDay; #SID2025; #SID2026
• Media literacy campaign:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/media-smart-online; #MediaSmartOnline
• Child and youth consumer protection campaign:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/adwiseonline; #AdWiseOnline
• 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