Insafe Weekly Update

Following on from recent discussions at the training meeting and Insafe Steering Committee meeting, we are convening two new short-term working groups in the framework of the BIK Phase 5 project:

Short-term Public Concerns Working Group
We are looking for people to join a short-term Public Concerns Working Group (PCWG) to discuss how best to collect public concerns at the national level, including information about online safety research, the latest trends, media coverage of online safety-related issues, and any new legislation. It is important to capture this information from across the network in a timely manner in order to have an understanding of the current landscape in Europe.

The group is expected to meet two or three times over the next six months to determine the best way forward.

If you would like to join this working group, please contact Karl by close of business on Monday, 13 May 2024.

Short-term Media Literacy Campaign Working Group 
As you may know, within BIK Phase 5, we are carrying out a media literacy awareness-raising campaign in collaboration with the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres (SICs). Such a media literacy campaign needs to build on the networking resources available in the SICs while also building synergies and creating opportunities for collaboration across the network. We first pilot tested an approach in March-April 2024 in a restricted number of European countries (Czech Republic, Ireland, Poland), and now plan to gradually scale the campaign at an EU-wide level. Therefore a short-term Media Literacy Working Group (MLWG) will now be established, which will provide a dedicated space for SIC members to contribute their insights and perspectives in rolling out a full-scale, EU-wide media literacy campaign going forward.   

As members of the short-term MLWG, SIC members will have the opportunity to contribute to the development and co-creation of the awareness-raising campaign, from its concept to its delivery, in collaboration with the network. The group will also provide a unique opportunity for exchanging views and sharing best practices on the topic of media literacy, highlighting events and initiatives at the national level all across Europe.

If you would like to join this working group, please contact Annarita by close of business on Monday, 13 May 2024.

A new study, commissioned under the BIK+ strategy, explores age assurance, including age verification tools, in today's digital landscape. The study, titled Mapping age assurance typologies and requirements, outlines the legal and practical aspects of age assurance, detailing its necessity, methods, and associated challenges. Age assurance refers to the methods used to determine an individual's age with different levels of confidence or certainty. They can be grouped into three main categories: age estimation, age verification, and self-declaration. Digital service providers bear the primary responsibility for ensuring proportionate age assurance.

Read more on the European Commission website.

The full research report can be read or downloaded from the Publications Office of the European Union website; executive summaries are also available in English and French.

Democracy is about making sure that everyone’s voice counts and is heard when governments make decisions. For democracy to work, there should be free and open discussions based on true information. For children and teenagers, this means that they have the right to express their views and opinions on matters that affect them.

Participation can mean different things: for example, voting is an important aspect of participation, but it could also be answering a survey, signing a petition or going to a meeting. Participation could also be taking action to improve schools, better street lighting, raising awareness about mental health, or taking climate change action.

The EU Children's Participation Platform is currently running a democracy survey. Aimed at young people who are EU citizens or living in an EU country and aged 17 or younger, the survey aims to gather youth views on democratic participation, what young people think works well, what type of changes are needed, and to gather personal experiences. The survey is available in all official languages of the EU; the deadline for responses is Tuesday, 30 April 2024.

Further information can also be found in the newsletter of the EU Children’s Participation Platform: Democracy and you! (March 2024).

Safer Internet Centres are encouraged to disseminate the information through their own networks and contacts.

A final reminder that we would be very grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete the short evaluation survey which will help us to plan for future meetings. A reminder also that you can find copies of the presentations from the meeting in the BIK community (login first).

If you have any questions or need any further information about any aspect of the training meeting, please contact Karl.

The next Insafe training meeting will take place from Tuesday, 15 to Thursday, 17 October 2024, and will be an online meeting. Further information will be shared in the coming months. For information in the meantime, please contact Karl.

Many thanks to those people who attended the online meeting which focused on the good practice guide on creating, testing and evaluating evidence-based awareness campaigns and in particular to Michel Walrave, Jane McGarrigle and Andreea Hurezeanu for their presentations. A recording of the meeting and copies of the presentations are all available from the BIK community (login first).

Read or download the good practice guide here.

Following the meeting, four supplementary protocols have been published, providing annexes to the good practice guide. View them here:

• Protocol 1: Choosing effective campaigning and intervention methods: a quick guide
• Protocol 2: Involving children and young people in online safety campaigns
• Protocol 3: How to measure the success and efficacy of a campaign or intervention
• Protocol 4: Suggestions on types of communication materials to be produced for specific target audiences

In case of questions, please contact Valentina.

Many thanks to those who attended the helpline early warning group meeting last week. A summary of the discussions and a link to the recording is available from the BIK community (login first). For further information, please contact Karl.

This event is funded by the European Commission as part of the Better Internet for Kids Programme under the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL).

This focus group, taking place online on Tuesday, 30 April 2024 from 10:00 – 16:30 CEST, will explore the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the procedures and roles associated with becoming Trusted Flaggers under the Act. It will outline the new regulatory requirements and provide a platform for experience sharing on the trusted flagger application process and the collaboration status between industry, Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs), and the INHOPE/Insafe networks. Find out more on the INHOPE website.

This meeting is intended for INHOPE hotlines and Insafe helplines interested in applying for trusted flagger status, as well as industry operating in the EU and national Digital Services Coordinators.

Please note: the deadline for registrations has now passed.

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.

On Wednesday, 8 May 2024, the Forum, funded by the European Commission under Project CPORT, will bring together stakeholders to share knowledge and experience, learn about the latest developments in child online safety, and discuss what each of us can do to optimise the joint fight against child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Join INHOPE to learn about the next steps for the ICCAM eco-system and how to navigate through regulations ensuring correct information exchange.  This is an in-person event, taking place in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Advance registration is essential.

Find more about the CPORT Forum here. 

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. 

As you may know, we wish to develop a new mascot for the annual Safer Internet Day (SID) campaign, ideally with a lifespan of several years. EUN is currently appointing an external design agency to support with this task, but there is one essential condition – the design must be youth-led.

As such, we are looking to convene a youth focus group of approximately 10-15 young people from across the EU to support this task. The youth focus group will meet with the design agency online over a series of meetings to help define an initial brief and then work iteratively with the agency to comment on concepts and drafts until a final design is achieved. We hope that this will be a short and decisive process, ideally taking a maximum of one month from the point of the first youth focus group meeting to the finalisation of a design. While we can not yet give an exact starting date, we expect this work to take place during May and June 2024. Due to the educational commitments of many of our youth representatives, we would anticipate short online meetings needing to take place in an early evening timeslot. To mitigate any safeguarding concerns, staff representatives from EUN/Better Internet for Kids (BIK) will facilitate all contact with the youth group and will be present in all online meetings.

In terms of criteria for joining the youth focus group, young participants should be enthusiastic and available to commit to this task (although we recognise that it might not be possible to attend every single meeting, participants should aim to provide feedback in alternative forms if possible). The meetings and any associated activities will be conducted in English.

We request that youth coordinators share this information with their youth panellists. Initial expressions of interest should be sent by email to Chiara and Sabrina by the close of business tomorrow - Tuesday, 30 April 2024.

Any questions regarding the SID mascot redevelopment, more generally, should be addressed to the SID Helpdesk mailbox.

Save the date for the next BIK Teacher corner webinar on Disinformation and fake news this Thursday, 2 May 2024 at 17:00 CEST. It will take place online.

This webinar will address mis- and disinformation, fake news, deepfakes and conspiracy theories. In particular, disinformation is surrounded by increasing concern as it has been identified as a concrete threat to democracy. With the European elections coming up in June 2024, this topic is now more relevant than ever. How can teachers and educators support their pupils in the classroom, especially if they are first-time voters?

You can already register for the webinar here. 

Did you miss Webinar 1, which introduced the BIK Teacher corner? If so, you can watch the recording here. 

More generally, check the BIK Teacher corner webinar page regularly for more information on upcoming webinars. 

• Safe and Healthy Online Practices awareness campaign (SIC PT)
• BIK Youth Ambassador Joana at the European Youth Week kick-off event (BIK Youth Ambassador)
• European Youth Week 2024: reflections from BIK Youth Ambassador Diya (BIK Youth Ambassador)
• Celebrating progress: empowering Media Literacy Week in Finland with positive feedback (SIC FI)
• Happy International Girls in ICT Day 2024

Please submit your public portal blog articles to the BIK content mailbox.

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

Helpline case studies

• Telegram deepnude bot (SIC DE)

Awareness community of practice

• Creating, testing and evaluating evidence-based awareness campaigns
• Greek national survey on 4,800 teenagers about "Online Violence" (SIC GR)
• Age limit (SIC DE)
• Sharenting (SIC DE)

Helpline community of practice

• Early warning group - report from meeting on 23 April 2024

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