Insafe Weekly Update

On 11 May 2024, as part of the celebrations for the two-year anniversary of the European strategy for a better internet for kids (BIK+), the Compendium of the EU formal texts concerning children in the digital world was updated with the developments since 2022.

The compendium aims to provide a comprehensive overview of relevant EU legislation and policies, serving as a reference guide for policymakers, stakeholders and researchers. It includes laws currently in force, legislative proposals, strategies, and self and co-regulatory measures. 

You can read and download the latest edition of the Compendium of EU formal texts concerning children in the digital world on the website of the Publications Office of the European Union. Currently available in English, the compendium will soon be available in all EU languages.

The Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) recently published new guidelines for policymakers and educators on how to support wellbeing at school, with the aim of enhancing supportive learning environments for vulnerable learners, and for promoting wellbeing and mental health at school.

These are the first outcomes of the activity of the European Commission's expert group which is part of the Pathways to School Success, a flagship initiative of the European Education Area. These experts include researchers, academics, teachers and school principals, teacher trainers, school and child psychologists.

The aim of the is expert group is to develop evidence-based policy recommendations and guidelines to address the wellbeing challenges young people and teachers are facing. Among these recommendations, the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres is mentioned, alongside the BIK portal, the Safer Internet Forum, and the booklet The Digital Services Act (DSA) explained: Measures to protect children and young people online.

In addition, two webinars are being organised by the European Toolkit for Schools, promoting school success, inclusive education, and well-being at school. Save the dates below:

• Tuesday, 18 June 2024, 16:00 CEST - Promoting wellbeing for improved learning outcomes;
• Wednesday, 26 June 2024, 16:00 CEST - Wellbeing without overload: Integrating self-care in teaching practices.

The Better Internet for Kids (BIK) Policy Monitor (previously the BIK Policy Map) has been tracking how European countries support children’s and young people’s digital experiences since 2014. Since its launch a decade ago, the main objective of this series has been to compare and exchange knowledge on policies and actions that promote children's safety and well-being in the digital environment based on the recommended measures of the European Strategy for a Better Internet for Kids (the BIK strategy). Along with changes in the digital environment, the strategy has also evolved and was relaunched as the BIK+ strategy in May 2022. In May 2024, as BIK+ celebrates its second anniversary, the fifth report of this series is released to mark this important milestone.

Read an article on the report launch here.

Read the full BIK Policy Monitor Report 2024 here.

Age assurance is one solution that can be used to keep children safe from online risks. In recent years, research has been undertaken to investigate and analyse different measures for age assurance online. As part of comprehensive EU efforts, as enshrined in the European Strategy for a Better Internet for Kids+ (the BIK+ strategy), the European Commission recently published a research report, Mapping age assurance typologies and requirements, that examines various types of age assurance and outlines ten essential requirements to consider when implementing age assurance tools.

To support and expand the implementation of proportionate age assurance methods and build on the report, an age assurance self-assessment tool and corresponding questionnaire have been launched, helping digital service providers to critically reflect on their digital services and how these may intersect with the protection of children and young people online. It offers practical guidance to digital services providers throughout the self-assessment process, providing relevant questions about age assurance to attain a robust and critically reflected decision-making process regarding the protection of minors online.

Read the article on the tool launch here.

Download the self-assessment tool manual here, and the corresponding questionnaire here.

Tech Matters is a Silicon Valley nonprofit with a mission to bring the benefits of technology to all of humanity, not just the richest 5 per cent. They have developed Aselo, which is an open-source, cloud-based contact centre platform in partnership with Child Helpline International (CHI) and will provide a demonstration of the system and answer questions about how it works and its functionality. More information on Aselo will be shared with helplines and is also available from the BIK community (login first). The meeting will take place on Thursday, 30 May 2024 at 16:15 CEST. Join the meeting using this link; for further information, please contact Karl.

The next early warning meeting for helplines will take place on Friday, 7 June 2024 at 11:00 CEST; join using this link. Helplines that are unable to join can share any updates with Karl ahead of the meeting.

An online meeting with OnlyFans will take place on Friday, 14 June 2024 at 14:30 CEST. The meeting will be an opportunity to learn more about the platform and the safety and privacy features that they have in place; join using this link. For further information, please contact Karl. 

An online meeting focusing on accessibility will take place on Thursday, 20 June 2024 at 11:00 CEST. During this meeting, we will explore the main accessibility criteria and see how any SIC member can produce more accessible content; join using this link. For further information, please contact Annarita. 

During this meeting, we'll be making reference to the good practice guide "Ensuring accessibility in content for all" that we produced for the network back in October 2023. It is dedicated to content managers and editors, and includes a series of recommendations, suggestions, and tips on how to make the content you produce more accessible - whether you're working with websites, Word or PDF documents, presentations, videos, or social media.

Please note, the following item relates to wider INHOPE work. It is not part of the BIK Phase 5 project and is provided here for information purposes only.

What is needed to reshape the workflow of law enforcement who are processing the continuously growing number of NCMEC reports? At this year’s AviaTor Forum, taking place in Brussels, Belgium on Wednesday, 26 June 2024, INHOPE aims to answer that question by focusing on innovation, legislation, and cooperation. Law enforcement, industry, legislators, trust and safety teams, tech, academics, NGOs and hotline analysts are invited to register for this in-person event. Advance registration is essential.

Find more about the AviaTor Forum here. 

An online meeting with WebGroup (who own and operate the adult site XVideos) will take place on Wednesday, 3 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. The meeting will be an opportunity to hear more about the safety and privacy tools that they have in place as well as reporting routes and how to flag problematic content; join the meeting using this link. For further information, please contact Karl. 

Safer Internet Centres are invited to participate in theAdWiseOnline consultation phaseto share their insights based on their knowledge and experience with issues related to online consumer protection for children and youth.  

A new BIK's initiative aims to design and run awareness campaigns to empower children against manipulative digital marketing practices. In this context, a pilot phase of the AdWiseOnline campaign was launched this year.During this phase, a research report on Manipulative digital marketing practices targeting children and young people has been published. Additionally, materials for young people were created to simplify the complex terminology of digital marketing and the legal framework of consumer rights: the AdWiseOnline guide for young people to outsmart online ads and marketing traps and the AdWiseOnline video.  

To scope the next steps and further develop and rollout the campaign, with the most impactful reach and results for the target audiences, we seek your feedback! 
Please fill in the AdWiseOnline surveyby COB on Monday, 24 Juneand contact Inna for any questions/requests. 

The "Make it clear: effective media education" international conference will take place in Warsaw, Poland tomorrow Tuesday, 28 May 2024.

The event brings together international experts from different areas of media education and internet safety, who will share their knowledge and experience related to developing young people's information literacy, an informed and critical approach to media content, and countering disinformation. Several presentations and debates will provide concrete tools and inspiration for use in everyday teaching practice.

The conference will be held in a hybrid format (onsite and online) in both Polish and English. You can still register for online participation here. 

This conference is organised within the framework of the Creative Europe Programme by a consortium consisting of NASK (Poland), the Latvian Internet Association, and Save the Children Romania.

The network is encouraged to disseminate this information further, and/or to participate in the conference. For any additional queries, please contact mic@nask.pl.

Save the date for the next BIK Teacher corner webinar on virtual worlds and immersive realities on Thursday, 6 June 2024 at 17:00 CEST. It will take place online.

This webinar will explore virtual worlds and immersive realities. Some of the key developments in recent years revolve around artificial intelligence (AI), with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (XR) applications emerging in all sectors of society, such as leisure, health, and especially learning, training and education. Such technologies entail both great opportunities and concerning risks. How can teachers and educators be empowered with the skills and knowledge needed to tackle the implications of immersive realities in educational settings? 

You can register for the webinar here. 

Did you miss Webinar 1, which introduced the BIK Teacher corner, or Webinar 2 on disinformation and fake news? Check the BIK Teacher corner webinar page regularly for recordings of previous webinars and more information on future ones. 

The next edition of the BIK bulletin will be published at the end of June with a focus on Virtual Worlds. As always, we also invite Safer Internet Centres (and their partners) to contribute with general articles on news, resources or events. The content deadline is the close of business on Monday, 17 June 2024 (or sooner if possible) and all contributions or queries should be addressed to content@betterinternetforkids.eu.

As notified at the recent Insafe Steering Committee meeting, the procedural timeline for lump sum mechanism (LSM) claims is changing slightly. Although the claim period applies from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024, we are now asking Safer Internet Centres to notify us of their intent to claim earlier in the year (May-June). 

Therefore, could SICs that intend to claim the lump sum mechanism for 2024 please confirm this in an email to the BIK content mailbox by close of business on Monday, 17 June 2024. 

The qualifying content will remain largely similar to previous years - that is, a mix of public articles, resource and helpline case study uploads, community posts, and general capacity-building actions spread throughout the year. There will also be an emphasis on new content types to support the population of the new BIK platform in the second part of the year (further information to follow); for now, please continue contributing content as usual. Following expressions of intent, SICs will receive an updated criteria checklist which aligns with the new content and editorial strategy of the redeveloped BIK platform and ensures that contributions are more evenly distributed across the year. Please note that assessment platform submissions (for awareness, helplines and hotlines) will no longer fall within the LSM criteria as these are mandatory requirements under your SIC grant agreements.

• Sharenting: tips for parents and caregivers (SIC RO)
• World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development 2024

Please submit your public portal blog articles to the BIK content mailbox. (SIC RO)

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

Helpline case studies

• Minor extorted by alleged spiritual advisor (SIC ES)

Helpline community of practice

• Meta - crisis call - report from online meeting - May 2024
  

Hotline community of practice

• The 2024 annual Nordic Hotline meeting in Helsinki (SIC FI)

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.

• 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