Insafe Weekly Update

SICs are invited to attend an online workshop where the European Commission will provide an update on ongoing EU policy developments on age verification to several representatives of civil society. The workshop will take place on Thursday, 21 May 2026 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. It will also present the recently adopted recommendation for Member States to implement the solution at the national level by the end of the year. Access the agenda here.

Please registerby the extended deadline of 17:00 CEST today (Monday, 18 May 2026)to receive the link to join the meeting.

For further information, please contact Rima.

Please note, as next Monday (25/05) will be a public holiday in many places, next week’s Weekly Update will be issued on Tuesday (26/05).

The submission deadline for the new call “Ensuring comprehensive geographical coverage of the network of Safer Internet Centres (SICs)” 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.

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 2026.

EUN will host an information session about the consultation activities after sharing the materials indicated above. If you have any questions before this session, please also contact BIKevaluation@eun.org.

Although it's only been a month since our joint Insafe-INHOPE training meeting in Latvia, we are already looking ahead to the next Insafe training meeting, which will be held online.

The meeting will once again take place across three consecutive mornings on Tuesday, 13, Wednesday, 14, and Thursday, 15 October 2026, from 10:00 CEST until 13:00 CEST.

More information and a draft agenda will be shared in due course.

For any immediate questions, please contact Karl.

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 recruiting youth panellists for the Safer Internet Forum (SIF). Youth Coordinators will be invited to share their good practices

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.

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 further information, please contact Karl.

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

A reminder that you can find reports and links to recordings from previous meetings in the BIK community (login first).

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

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, 11June 2026 at 15:00 CEST. We will hear from Amanda Goharian from Thorn, who will share insights from their recent report,which colleagues from Child Focus also contributed to.

Use this link to join the meeting. For further information, please contact Karl.

Many thanks to everyone who attended the recent early warning meeting for awareness centres. A report from the meeting and a link to the recording are available from the BIK community (login first).

The next meeting will take place on Wednesday, 24 June 2026 at 11:00 CEST; use this link to join.

Please remember that you can use the Teams chat to share information between meetings. A reminder also that reports and recordings from all previous meetings are available from the BIK community (login first).

Please contact Karl for any further information about awareness early warning meetings.

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 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 INHOPE webinar series here.

Colleagues from the Combat Online Grooming project are currently conducting a new study building on the findings of the CESAGRAM project*, with a particular focus on the disclosure process in cases of peer-to-peer harmful sexual behaviours in digital contexts. They are looking for professionals from across Europe who:

• work in child protection and safeguarding (e.g. psychology, social work, education, helplines, hotlines or law enforcement);
• are affiliated with child safeguarding and reporting mechanisms;
• and/or have direct experience working with children affected by harmful sexual behaviours or technology-facilitated sexual exploitation and abuse.

Interested participants should complete this form (please also feel free to disseminate this information if you know of any colleagues or groups that might be interested), and a member of the research team will follow up with further information. The focus group discussions will be facilitated and will last up to 2 hours.

For any further information, please contact Salome Habousha at Missing Children Europe.

* CESAGRAM project - a Comprehensive European Strategy against Grooming and Missing children, through a range of separate yet interconnected activities: Research, Training and Awareness Raising, the creation of an AI Tool, and Advocacy. The project is delivered through a partnership consisting of 11 expert organisations, funded by the European Commission.

Latest article:

• BIK Policy monitor report 2026 published: advancing the BIK+ vision across Europe

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