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20/10/2025
| |  | | Insafe Weekly UpdateBringing you the latest news on Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) and beyond... |
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| | | | | Governance |  |  | Call for evidence and public consultation for the Digital Fairness Act | [CLOSES THIS WEEK] | The European Commission's call for evidence and public consultation closes this week. The Digital Fairness Act will strengthen protection and digital fairness for consumers, while ensuring a level playing field and simplifying rules for businesses in the EU. It will address specific challenges as well as harmful practices that consumers face online, such as deceptive or manipulative interface design, misleading marketing by social media influencers, addictive design of digital products and unfair personalisation practices, especially where consumer vulnerabilities are exploited for commercial purposes. Young people are an important consumer segment with specific consumption patterns and often act as early adopters of new technologies and digital products. The Digital Fairness Act will pay particular attention to the protection of minors online. The call for evidence and public consultation, on the Have Your Say portal, closes this Friday, 24 October 2025 (midnight Brussels time). For more information, please refer to the dedicated press release. |  |
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| | Capacity building |  |  | Insafe Training meeting - October 2025 | [UPDATED, FOR INFORMATION] | Many thanks to everyone who attended the Insafe Training meeting last week. It was good to see so many of you online, and we hope that the various sessions were useful. As always, your participation and involvement were much appreciated. We would be very grateful if you could take a moment to complete the short evaluation survey, which will help us in the planning of future meetings. You can find presentations from the meeting in the BIK community (login first). A report is also being compiled, and this, along with other presentations, will be shared in due course. For further information, please contact Karl. |  |
|  |  | Insafe Training meeting resource competition | [UPDATED, FOR INFORMATION] | For this edition of the resource competition, a record number of 16 resources were submitted. Further details on the resources can be found in the resource competition catalogue. Safer Internet Centres were invited to vote for their favourite resource, after which the top three voted resources were advanced to the next round. Accordingly, the respective SIC representatives were asked to give a short presentation during a dedicated session at the online training meeting to introduce the resource, its benefits, and what the SIC would do should they win the competition. The presented resources were: ● Italian Safer Internet Centre – “We are fearless” web series, season 4 ● Luxembourgish Safer Internet Centre – “Cornhub ≠ reality” ● Dutch Safer Internet Centre – “Click, Share, Humiliate, Destroy” - a book on online sexual violence against girls and women. Following the presentations and a further vote among participants in the session, the Luxembourgish Safer Internet Centre was declared the winner, benefiting from a grant of up to 5,000 Euros to maximise the impact of the resource and share the benefits with network members. For questions regarding the resource competition, please contact Karl or Annarita. |  |
|  |  | Online meeting for DSA designated trusted flaggers | [THIS WEEK, FOR INFORMATION AND PARTICIPATION] | There will be a meeting for any SIC that has been designated as a trusted flagger under the DSA. A colleague from the European Commission’s trusted flagger team at DG CNECT will speak, and there will also be an opportunity to share experiences and best practices as well as to ask questions. The meeting will take place on Tuesday, 21 October 2025 at 11:00 CEST; use this link to join the meeting. For further information, please contact Karl. |  |
|  |  | New lump sum mechanism scheme | [NEXT WEEK, FOR INFORMATION AND PARTICIPATION] | A new lump sum mechanism (LSM) scheme has now been launched under the current BIK coordination contract (2025-2027) for EU co-funded Safer Internet Centres. Information on the new scheme was shared with SIC Coordinators at the Insafe Steering Committee meeting last Friday. There will also be an online session to familiarise SICs with the new LSM scheme on Tuesday, 28 October 2025, from 14:00 - 15:00 CET. Join the meeting using this link. In brief, the new scheme will run continuously through to March 2027 (i.e. there will just be a single cycle). Co-funded SICs will be able to claim across three levels of contribution: - Claim level 1 will provide a mandatory baseline for SIC contributions to ensure that key platform content is kept up to date.
- Claim level 2 is the mid-tier claim level. It will still require the mandatory baseline to be met, but will allow SICs to pick from a range of other activities to allow them more flexibility while sharing good practice and expertise.
- Claim level 3 is the high-tier claim level. It will still require the mandatory baseline to be met, allowing SICs to choose from a range of other activities, thereby providing them with more flexibility. To be eligible for this claim level, SICs must additionally contribute to consultation activities to support the evaluation of the BIK+ strategy.
The maximum LSM claim cannot exceed 5,000 euros per co-funded SIC for the duration of the current BIK contract (2025-2027).
In case of questions in the meantime, please contact Sarah. |  |
|  | |  |  | Online meeting on SafeToNet: Harmblock Device | [NEXT WEEK, FOR INFORMATION AND PARTICIPATION] | This online meeting will take place on Thursday, 30 October 2025 at 11:00 CET. SafeToNet have developed “groundbreaking AI that, when embedded into the operating system of a device, stops a child from seeing or producing sexual content”. They are working with a number of organisations globally, including the eSafety commissioner in Australia, the Deutscher Bundestag, the European Parliament, and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. They will explain more about the device and how it works, along with future plans. You can use this link to join the meeting. Please contact Karl if you have any questions or require additional information. |  |
|  | |  | |  |  | Online meeting on Cyber Desk | [NEW, FOR INFORMATION AND PARTICIPATION] | Colleagues from the SIC in Luxembourg will present their Cyber Desk, which offers face-to-face counselling alongside the Luxembourg House of Cyber Security. The service operates with a cybersecurity expert and a psychologist/pedagogue to provide both practical and emotional support. The meeting will take place on Wednesday, 26 November 2025 at 11:00 CET. Access the meeting using this link. In case of questions in the meantime, please contact Karl. |  |
|  |  | Online meeting on promoting digital well-being in schools | [REMINDER, FOR INFORMATION AND PARTICIPATION] | Dr Cosmin Nada from the University Institute of Lisbon will present some research evidence on the impact of digital tools on well-being, along with Portuguese recommendations from DGE (the Ministry of Education in Portugal). Dr Nada is also part of the ENESET network, which is producing a report for the European Commission focusing on mobile phone bans in schools across Europe, and will share some of the research findings. The meeting will take place on Thursday, 11 December 2025 at 11:00 CET; use this link to join. For further information, please contact Karl. |  |
|  |  | Online meeting on children’s and young people’s influencers online | [REMINDER, FOR INFORMATION AND PARTICIPATION] | This online meeting will take place on Monday, 15 December 2025 at 11:00 CET. During the meeting, we will hear from colleagues at the Swedish SIC and Linköping University, who will share reports and research from Sweden. You can use this link to join the meeting. Please contact Karl for further information. |  |
|  |  | Insafe induction manual for Safer Internet Centres | [REMINDER, FOR INFORMATION AND REFERENCE] | The Insafe induction manual for Safer Internet Centres has recently been updated and is available for download from the BIK community (login first). It’s a useful read for all, whether new to the network or not, as it provides a good background to the tools and services provided for network members, the various commitments you have as a member of the network (including a handy checklist by strand), and contact information for team members.
Feedback or suggestions for future editions are welcome via content@betterinternetforkids.eu. |  |
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| | Events, campaigns and resources |  |  | DSA for YOUth – Protecting minors by design – explore the campaign resources! | [UPDATED, FOR INFORMATION AND ACTION] | The DSA for YOUth - Protecting minors by design campaign, focusing on the guidelines for the protection of minors under the DSA and the approach to age assurance and age verification, is currently underway. Explore the DSA for YOUth toolkit to access the family-friendly explainers, the DSA guidelines booklet, and a quiz on how the DSA helps protect children and teens online. The campaign will run until 7 November 2025, featuring online events, youth video interviews, influencer collaborations, and insights from Safer Internet Centres (SICs). Check the campaign page regularly for updates and join the conversation on social media via LinkedIn, X, Facebook, or by using the hashtag #DSAforYOUth. Feel free to use the promo pack to help spread the word about how the DSA keeps kids and teens safe online. A reminder, also, that we are keen to receive SIC insight articles on how you are working to help enforce the DSA through your national actions, including: - case studies highlighting national best practices;
- spotlighting various resources that align with the guidelines to help keep users safe;
- insights from those SICs involved in piloting and building upon the age verification blueprint (i.e. Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, and Spain);
- insights into the work of those SICs designated as trusted flaggers, for example, through ‘day in the life’ stories (or similar) which show the stages that a report might go through or how trusted flaggers operate;
- … or any other notable actions that your SIC is delivering to support the measures of the DSA!
Please send contributions to content@betterinternetforkids.eu by the close of business on Friday, 24 October 2025 (or sooner if possible). Thanks to all those SICs that have already sent contributions. |  |
|  |  | Safer Internet Forum 2025 | [UPDATED, REGISTRATION NOW OPEN] | Registration is now open for Safer Internet Forum (SIF) 2025, which will take place in a hybrid format in Brussels and online on Thursday, 4 December 2025, with a title of Why age matters: Protecting and empowering youth in the digital age. As already communicated to the Insafe Steering Committee, in-person attendance is restricted to TWO colleagues from each Safer Internet Centre (this will typically be the SIC Coordinator (or their designate) and the youth chaperone (if this is someone from your SIC)). Online participation is available for colleagues who are unable to attend in person; there are no restrictions on the number of online attendees. In case of questions, please contact saferinternetforum@betterinternetforkids.eu. |  |
|  |  | Safer Internet Day 2026 | [NEW, FOR INFORMATION AND ACTION] | The next edition of Safer Internet Day is fast approaching, and campaign activities will start ramping up in the coming months. A reminder that SID 2026 will be marked by a global day of focus on Tuesday, 10 February 2026, and events and activities will take place throughout the whole month, across Europe and the globe! Sharing network SID plans As is customary, we have once again made an online document available for SICs and SIC+ countries to share their SID plans with other members of the network. A reminder that this is an internal document only, to allow network members to see the plans of other SIC/SIC+ organisations, and to make connections where there are synergies. The EC also refer to this regularly to help inform SID planning. Please update the document regularly as your plans progress. Updating SID public profile pages A reminder that direct access to update SID profiles is now possible for Safer Internet Centres via the BIK platform. Please contact the SID helpdesk to check or nominate a SID profile editor for your SIC. SID assets A reminder that a save-the-date logo for SID 2026 is available to download in the BIK community (login first). We will progressively start sharing other assets to support the promotion of SID 2026 in the coming months. Please keep checking the Insafe Weekly Update for the latest information, or contact the SID helpdesk with any further questions regarding the 2026 campaign. |  |
|  |  | Registration ongoing for the BIK MOOC on supporting young people in building and managing healthy online relationships | [REGISTRATION ONGOING] | From group chats to gaming servers, today’s youth connect, learn and grow through online relationships. But alongside connection comes some risks: cyberbullying, grooming, peer pressure, and more. This new BIK MOOC (massive open online course), Helping kids build and manage healthy online relationships, offers practical guidance for educators, youth workers, and caregivers to navigate these challenges with care and confidence. Already in progress and continuing until mid-November, the course participants can explore real strategies, discover ready-made tools, and join a European community of professionals facing similar challenges. The MOOC will be delivered in English. Further information and online registration are available here. Safer Internet Centres are encouraged to continue sharing information on the BIK MOOC with their own networks and contacts. Registration remains open, even though the MOOC has now started. A promotional pack is available, featuring sample texts, social media posts, and visuals. |  |
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| | Dissemination | | | Approaching deadlines | | | Important dates to come |  |  | New campaign: DSA for YOUth - Protecting minors by design | Until 7 November 2025 (with some activity continuing up until SIF 2025) | All (see above) | BIK MOOC: Helping kids build and manage healthy online relationships | Until mid-November 2025 | Find further information and register here
| Online meeting for designated trusted flaggers under the DSA | Tuesday, 21 October 2025, 11:00 CEST (online) | SICs who are designated as trusted flaggers under the DSA (but those thinking of applying or in the process of applying may also find the meeting useful) (see above) | Network information session on the new lump sum mechanism (LSM) scheme | Tuesday, 28 October 2025, 14:00 CET (online) | All (see above) | Helpline early warning meeting | Wednesday, 29 October 2025, 11:00 CET (online) | Helplines (see above) | Online meeting for youth coordinators | Thursday, 30 October 2025, 11:00 CET (online) | Youth coordinators (see above) | Online meeting with SafeToNet | Thursday, 30 October 2025, 11:00 CET (online) | All (see above) | Focus group on the Action plan against cyberbullying | Thursday, 30 October 2025, 18:00-20:00 CET (online) | National participants (by SIC nomination) (see above) | Awareness centre early warning meeting | Wednesday, 12 November 2025, 11:00 CET (online) | Awareness centres (see above) | Online meeting on Cyber Desk | Wednesday, 26 November 2025, 11:00 CET (online) | All (see above) | SIF 2025 week | BIK Youth Panel | Tuesday, 2 December 2025 (Brussels, Belgium) | Youth panel members (and their chaperones) are expected to arrive by lunchtime | BIK Advisory Board meeting | Wednesday, 3 December 2025, 10:30 – 12:30 CET (Brussels, Belgium) | Selected SIC representatives | EC meeting with Safer Internet Centres | Wednesday, 3 December 2025, 14:00 – 17:00 CET (Brussels, Belgium) | All EC co-funded Safer Internet Centres are invited to send one in-person representative (the SIC Coordinator or their designate) | SIF network dinner | Wednesday, 3 December 2025, from 18:30 CET (Brussels, Belgium) | All SIC colleagues who are present in Brussels are welcome to attend. Further information will follow in due course about the location and payments to reserve spots | Safer Internet Forum (SIF) 2025 | Thursday, 4 December 2025 (hybrid - Brussels, Belgium and online) | As is typical, restrictions on onsite participation apply, but online participation is open to all (see above) | SIC meeting with HaDEA | Friday, 5 December 2025 | There is an additional meeting for SICs on the Friday following SIF, organised by HaDEA. Please contact your HaDEA Officer for further details on this. | | Helpline early warning meeting | Wednesday, 10 December 2025, 11:00 CET (online) | Helplines (see above) | Promoting digital well-being in schools | Thursday, 11 December 2025, 11:00 CET (online) | All (see above) | Online meeting on children’s and young people’s influencers | Monday, 15 December 2025, 11:00 CET (online) | All (see above) | Awareness centre early warning meeting | Thursday, 8 January 2026, 11:00 CET (online) | Awareness centres (see above) | Helpline early warning meeting | Wednesday, 28 January 2026, 11:00 CET (online) | Helplines (see above) | Safer Internet Day 2026: Together for a better internet | Throughout February 2026, with a global day of focus on Tuesday, 10 February | All | Awareness centre early warning meeting | Wednesday, 18 February 2026, 11:00 CET (online) | Awareness centres (see above) | Helpline early warning meeting | Thursday, 12 March 2026, 11:00 CET (online) | Helplines (see above) | Awareness centre early warning meeting | Wednesday, 1 April 2026, 11:00 CEST (online) | Awareness centres (see above) | Helpline early warning meeting | Wednesday, 22 April 2026, 11:00 CEST (online) | Helplines (see above) | Awareness centre early warning meeting | Wednesday, 13 May 2026, 11:00 CEST (online) | Awareness centres (see above) | Helpline early warning meeting | Wednesday, 3 June 2026, 11:00 CEST (online) | Helplines (see above) | Awareness centre early warning meeting | Wednesday, 24 June 2026, 11:00 CEST (online) | Awareness centres (see above) | Helpline early warning meeting | Wednesday, 15 July 2026, 11:00 CEST (online) | Helplines (see above) |
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