Insafe Weekly Update

As you know, we are currently redeveloping the BIK platform, for launch in the autumn season (the exact date is yet to be confirmed). In preparation, we are undertaking some content cleaning and migration tasks over the summer, and for some of these, we need input or cooperation from SIC colleagues. For this reason, we have created this new section of the Weekly Update and encourage SICs to review it each week for the latest news, updates and deadlines.

If you have any questions about any aspect of the current or future platform, please contact the BIK content mailbox.

Many thanks in advance for your support.

All SIC Coordinators and content contacts have now been contacted regarding the review of SIC resource uploads to identify resources that should be migrated and those that are no longer current. Please note that the deadline for responses is the close of business on Friday, 26 July 2024.

In preparation for the launch of the new platform, we will soon be suspending the upload of SIC articles on the existing platform. In brief:

• Any articles received up to and including Wednesday, 31 July 2024 will be published on the existing platform and also published on the new platform (when launched). Please note, to ensure that we can continue to keep the new site 'fresh', we may stagger the publication of the articles across the coming months.
• Any articles received from Thursday, 1 August 2024 onwards will be held over and published on the new portal only (when launched). You can, however, continue to send items to the BIK content mailbox during this time to allow us to already prepare your articles for the new site.

We will, of course, make exceptions if articles are time-sensitive (i.e. for events or similar) or if you are contractually obliged to publish a certain item. If this is the case, please include a note explaining the situation when you send your content.

The European Commission is launching a 12-week open stakeholder consultation on the Digital Europe Programme as part of the mid-term evaluation. 

The consultation seeks to gain insights into stakeholders’ experience with the programme, their perspectives on how relevant the objectives of the programme are to the digital transformation of companies and the public sector, how the programme responds to current and future technological trends, the perceived coherence with other EU or national/local funding, and what they consider to be its expected impact. The aim is to gather diverse perspectives from small and medium-sized enterprises to non-governmental organisations, academia, social partners, public authorities, and other public and private organisations and citizens from EU Member States and associated countries. 

The questionnaire is available on the Commission’s Have Your Say portal in English, French, and German, and contributions in any official EU language are welcome. It will be open until Friday, 20 September 2024. To take part, please follow this link to the consultation and click on Go to consultation.  

The feedback received will help guide the design of future initiatives and inform reflections on the potential for simplification and burden reduction within the Digital Europe Programme. The scope of the mid-term evaluation and the proposed methodology are briefly described in the Call for Evidence, which is available in all EU languages on the same website. Feedback can also be provided on this document (to do so, go to Give feedback).  

Further information about the consultation can be found in the news item here. 

SICs are kindly invited to respond to the questionnaire and also help spread the word and raise interest to maximise the potential for meaningful feedback.  

One of the BIK Phase 5 project activities is to carry out a European Union-wide evaluation of the BIK+ strategy every two years. The evaluation involves consultations with various stakeholders, including young people and children, parents and carers, teachers, and expert stakeholders. Ghent University – Research Group: Law & Technology, acting in a subcontractor capacity, is developing a base research methodology for consultations with young people and children (over 12 years of age). 

As indicated in previous Insafe Steering Committee exchanges, 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. More information on this will follow soon.   

At this stage, EUN is launching a call for expressions of interest from expert organisations to organise consultations with children and young people younger than 12 years of age and from various vulnerable backgrounds. 

Please help us promote the open call by sharing it with any relevant expert organisations in your network. The open call is available here. 

In case of questions, please reach out to BIKevaluation@eun.org. 

There will be an online meeting with Yubo on Wednesday, 17 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. This will provide an opportunity to hear about the latest developments on the platform including safety and privacy tools. Yubo is expanding into a number of EU countries and is keen to work closely with Insafe helplines; use this link to join the meeting. For further information, please contact Karl.

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Monday, 22 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. For further information, please contact Karl.

Please note this item relates to wider INHOPE work not linked with BIK.

The seventh annual INHOPE Summit will take place in hybrid form on 8-9 October 2024. This year's summit will explore two critical topics: our society's understanding and awareness of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and the troubling trend of CSAM commercialisation. 

As the spread of CSAM online reaches unprecedented levels, reporting becomes increasingly vital. Yet, we must confront significant challenges in society's understanding of CSAM and address its economic ties. Join INHOPE as they tackle these pressing issues head-on.  

Read more in the article on the INHOPE website, or discover more on INHOPE events more generally.

As part of BIK youth consultation activities, we are looking for 5-10 young people to share their views on manipulative digital marketing practices that will feed into campaign materials for the full rollout of the AdWiseOnline campaign.    
 
The consultation is expected to cover:  

• Understanding what young people already know, and any gaps in knowledge.
• Analysing existing resources and assessing their usefulness.
• Gathering feedback on the preferred format of additional resources to better understand the topic.
• Exploring expectations regarding the support they would want to receive from their parents or teachers on this topic. 

We would like to meet with the group once during the summer (in the period between 1-16 August 2024) to introduce the initiative, explain what is expected, and gather immediate ideas on the above points. Following this initial meeting, young people (who are interested and available to continue collaboration) may be invited to contribute further during the August to October timeframe. This could include giving interviews, participating in podcasts, narrating videos, validating content, and co-designing resources. 
 
Thank you for issuing the call for interest at your national level; please contact Inna and Chiara by close of business on Friday, 19 July 2024, with any youth nominations.

Please note that although we have received great interest from youth (aged 17-19) so far, we are especially keen to involve some younger youth voices in this consultation work. Any SIC support in reaching this target group would be much appreciated.

The Lithuania Safer Internet Centre is organising an international summer camp for youth council delegates and chaperones from 21-24 August 2024: all Safer Internet Centre youth participants and colleagues are welcome to join.

The camp will be hosted on a fully equipped campsite near the Lithuanian seaside and will focus on excessive digital technology use. The participants, with the help of experienced trainers, will try to find solutions on how to talk about this growing problem and how to improve their habits. Fun and games are definitely a part of the process, and the participants will surely take advantage of being a few hundred meters away from the beach.  

Safer Internet Centre Lithuania is inviting all Safer Internet Centre youth participants and colleagues to a summer camp.

The participation fee of 290 EUR covers the cost of food and accommodation for the camp, but participants should arrange their journey to the campsite independently.

A flyer with more information is available here; registration is open until Friday, 19 July 2024. If you have any further questions, please contact Liudas Mikalkevicius.  

• Ensuring digital well-being for adolescents (SIC RO)
• Romanian Safer Internet Centre hotline (SIC RO)

Please submit your public portal blog articles to the BIK content mailbox; please see the note above (under BIK platform redevelopment) about SIC article uploads over the coming months. 

Remember, article contributions to the BIK portal will count towards your SIC’s lump sum mechanism (LSM) criteria for 2024.

Awareness community of practice

• Safer internet use issues among Slovenian teenagers in school year 2023/24 (SIC SI)

We hope that you are enjoying exploring the BIK platform. Please note, a BIK user guide is available to download from the BIK community (login first). In case of questions or issues when using any aspect of the BIK platform, please contact us using the contact link in the top right navigation area or email support@betterinternetforkids.eu.

IMPORTANT – if you have new starters who need to register for the platform, please direct them to www.betterinternetforkids.eu/register, in parallel with sending an email to support@betterinternetforkids.eu so that we can verify them and provide further instructions.

Remember, contributions to the BIK community will count towards your SIC’s lump sum mechanism (LSM) criteria for 2024.

• "Danube Camp" gathers young people from Romania, Bulgaria and Austria to discuss DSA-related questions and media rules (SIC AT)
• Turning Google Family link off (SIC HR)
• First BIK+ strategy evaluation: Open call for expressions of interest from expert organisations

• Better Internet for Kids (BIK) public portal:
  www.betterinternetforkids.eu; #BIK; #BIKbulletin
• New BIK strategy (BIK+) on BIK portal:
  www.betterinternetforkids.eu/newbikstrategy; #BIKplus
• Safer Internet Forum (SIF) on BIK portal:
  www.betterinternetforkids.eu/sif;#SIF2023; #SIF2024, #SaferInternetForum
• BIK Policy Map on BIK portal:
  www.betterinternetforkids.eu/bikmap; #BIKPolicyMap
• Safer Internet Day (SID) minisite:
  www.saferinternetday.org; #SID2024; #SID2025; #SaferInternetDay
• Positive Online Content (POCC) minisite:
  www.positiveonlinecontentforkids.eu; #positivecontent; #PositiveOnlineContent; #POCC
• BIK Youth minisite:
  www.bikyouth.eu; #BIKyouth; #Pledge2Youth
• Child and youth consumer protection campaign (launched on Safer Internet Day 2024):
  www.betterinternetforkids.eu/adwiseonline; #AdWiseOnline
• Media literacy campaign (launched in March 2024):
  www.betterinternetforkids.eu/mediasmartonline; #MediaSmartOnline
• 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