Insafe Weekly Update

The European Commission launched a call for evidence and public consultation on the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act.

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 will be open until 9 October 2025 (midnight Brussels time)and are available on the Have Your Say Portal. Find more information in the dedicated press release item.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation and a call for evidence to support the development of an Action plan against cyberbullying.

The Action Plan will be adopted in early 2026 to build a comprehensive, inclusive, and effective strategy to combat cyberbullying across the EU. It will focus on minors while also considering other elements of cyberbullying including gender and the heightened vulnerability of certain groups of youth up to the age of 29, such as persons with disabilities, LGBTQIA+, migrants and those from religious, racial or ethnic minorities, who are more affected by cyberbullying.    

The public consultations will be open until 29 September 2025 and are available on the Have your Say Portal. 
The questionnaire is also available in Word format for screen-reader users and in an easy-to-read version (coming 29/7/2025). 

On 14 July 2025, the European Commission presented guidelines on the protection of minors under the Digital Services Act (DSA). They will ensure that children and young people can continue to enjoy the opportunities the online world offers, such as learning, creativity and communication, while minimising the risks they face online, including exposure to harmful content and behaviour. 

The guidelines on the protection of minors ensure children enjoy high levels of privacy, safety and security on online platforms. This follows an inclusive and extensive consultation period, including with young people. Among other things, the guidelines provide recommendations to address addictive design, cyberbullying, harmful content, and unwanted contact from strangers. 

Read more about the guidelines on the protection of minors in the dedicated press release.  

On 14 July 2025, the European Commission released the first version of an EU white-label age-verification blueprint, as a basis for a user-friendly and privacy-preserving age verification method across Member States. 

The prototype of the age verification app is user-friendly and protects privacy setting a ‘gold standard' in age assurance online. It will, for example, allow users to easily prove they are over 18 when accessing restricted adult content online, while remaining in full control of any other personal information, such as a user's exact age or identity. No one would be able to track, see or reconstruct what content individual users are consulting. The verification app will be tested and further customised in collaboration with Member States, online platforms and end-users. 

Read more about the blueprint for an age verification solution to help protect minors online in the factsheet, and the dedicated press release. 

A reminder that the current call for proposals for Safer Internet Centres will close on Tuesday, 2 September 2025 (17:00:00 CEST). All relevant information can be found on the HaDEA website.

The next helpline early warning meeting will take place this Wednesday, 30 July 2025 at 11:00 CEST; join the meeting using this link. Please remember it is possible to use the Teams chat to share any information between meetings. 

Notes are now available in the BIK community.

Please contact Karl for any further information.

The next online meeting for youth coordinators will take place this Thursday, 31 July 2025 at 11.00 CEST. During this meeting, Liudas Mikalkevicius from the Lithuanian Safer Internet Centre will talk about the outcomes of a youth camp they held earlier this month together with the Latvian centre. In this meeting, our new Youth and Outreach Coordinator, Carolina Fruscione, will be joining the meeting.  Join the meeting using this link; for further information, please contact Chiara Antonelli.

Thanks to those who joined the recent early warning meeting for awareness centres; notes are now available in the BIK community (login first).

The next meeting will take place on Monday, 11 August 2025 at 11:00 CEST; use this link to join.

Please contact Karl for any further information.

We have developed a good practice guide on working with very young users, shared in the recent/June 2025 edition of the BIK bulletin and is available to download here.

The guide was written by Stéphane Chaudron, and we will have an online meeting on Tuesday, 30 September 2025, at 14:00 CEST, where Stéphane will present the guide and share some key information on how to work effectively with younger users online. Use this link to join the meeting. If you have any questions or require additional information, please contact Karl.

The 2025 edition of the European Digital Skills Awards (EDSA), titled “Shine bright, be digital, go further”, is now open for applications. This year’s five categories cover key areas such as education, workforce upskilling, inclusion, cybersecurity, and gender equality in ICT. Applications are open until 31 July 2025, with finalists announced at an online event in October. Organisations are encouraged to apply and showcase their impact on digital skills in Europe. Read more and apply.

• My voice in Brussels: how youth participation is forging a safer Digital Services Act (BIK Youth)
• Protecting children online: a deep dive into technology, policy, and prevention against child online sexual exploitation (BIK)

Access the full BIK news article archive here.

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

Reports from online meetings for awareness centres and helplines are now available in the BIK community, including:

• VUĊI Toolkit online meeting July 2025
• Sony PlayStation online meeting July 2025
• Helpline case: Associating phone numbers with other people´s Telegram profiles (SIC ES)

Please remember to login first to access any BIK community content.

Need help with the BIK platform?
Please refer to the BIK platform user guides for support with regular tasks (such as resource and helpline case study uploads).

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 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; #SIF2025; #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