Insafe Weekly Update

As you know, we are currently redeveloping the BIK platform, for launch in the autumn season (the exact date is yet to be confirmed). In preparation, we are undertaking some content cleaning and migration tasks over the summer, and for some of these, we need input or cooperation from SIC colleagues. For this reason, we have created this new section of the Weekly Update and encourage SICs to review it each week for the latest news, updates and deadlines.

If you have any questions about any aspect of the current or future platform, please contact the BIK content mailbox.

Many thanks in advance for your support.

As previously notified, in preparation for the launch of the new platform, we have now suspended the upload of SIC articles on the existing platform. The process we are following is as outlined below:

• Any articles received up to and including Wednesday, 31 July 2024, will be published on the existing platform and also on the new platform (when launched). Please note that to ensure that we can continue to keep the new site 'fresh,' we may stagger the publication of the articles across the coming months.
• Any articles received from Thursday, 1 August 2024 onwards will be held over and published on the new portal only (when launched). You can, however, continue to send items to the BIK content mailbox during this time to allow us to already prepare your articles for the new site.

We will, of course, make exceptions if articles are time-sensitive (i.e. for events or similar) or if you are contractually obliged to publish a certain item. If this is the case, please include a note explaining the situation when you send your content.

The European Commission has launched a call for evidence, responses to which will feed into the guidelines the Commission is preparing under Art.28(4) of the DSA on the protection of minors. Once adopted, these guidelines will help online platforms apply the requirement to put in place appropriate measures to ensure a high-level of privacy safety and security for minors online.  

The call seeks feedback on the proposed scope and approach of the guidelines, as well as on good practices and recommendations related to mitigation measures to the risks that minors can encounter online. The Commission is inviting all stakeholders to take part in the call for evidence, including by providing supporting scientific reports and research. 

Online platforms should ensure that the rights and best interests of children are a central consideration when designing their services. Platforms should adopt a risk-based approach, regularly carry out impact assessments, and implement mitigation measures for any potential risks to minors stemming from their services. The work of the Working Group on the Protection of Minors under the Board will also feed into the guidelines. 

The call is available in all EU official languages; a news item can be found here.  

Next steps:  

• Contributions are welcome to the call for evidence until Monday, 30 September 2024 (midnight Brussels time). 
• After the close of the call, the Commission will use input to draft the guidelines. 
• The Commission will conduct a public consultation on the draft guidelines. 
• Consultation of the Board. 
• Adoption of the guidelines is planned for before the summer of 2025. 

Safer Internet Centres are encouraged to contribute to the call for evidence. Please feel free to share this information with your own relevant contacts and networks also.

The European Commission is launching a 12-week open stakeholder consultation on the Digital Europe Programme as part of the mid-term evaluation. 

The consultation seeks to gain insights into stakeholders’ experience with the programme, their perspectives on how relevant the objectives of the programme are to the digital transformation of companies and the public sector, how the programme responds to current and future technological trends, the perceived coherence with other EU or national/local funding, and what they consider to be its expected impact. The aim is to gather diverse perspectives from small and medium-sized enterprises to non-governmental organisations, academia, social partners, public authorities, and other public and private organisations and citizens from EU Member States and associated countries. 

The questionnaire is available on the Commission’s Have Your Say portal in English, French, and German, and contributions in any official EU language are welcome. It will be open until Friday, 20 September 2024. To take part, please follow this link to the consultation and click on Go to consultation.  

The feedback received will help guide the design of future initiatives and inform reflections on the potential for simplification and burden reduction within the Digital Europe Programme. The scope of the mid-term evaluation and the proposed methodology are briefly described in the Call for Evidence, which is available in all EU languages on the same website. Feedback can also be provided on this document (to do so, go to Give feedback).  

Further information about the consultation can be found in the news item here. 

SICs are kindly invited to respond to the questionnaire and also help spread the word and raise interest to maximise the potential for meaningful feedback.  

One of the BIK Phase 5 project activities is to carry out a European Union-wide evaluation of the BIK+ strategy every two years. The evaluation involves consultations with various stakeholders, including young people and children, parents and carers, teachers, and expert stakeholders. 

As indicated in previous Insafe Steering Committee exchanges, we intend to actively involve SICs in the BIK+ strategy evaluation going forward, given their instrumental position, relevant expertise, and access to key national stakeholders.  

We would really like to underline the strategic importance of your involvement in this particular activity line, as the BIK+ strategy evaluation exercise is an excellent opportunity to help us shape the EU political priorities moving forward, against the background of ongoing DSA developments and in relation to the new political guidelines which have been recently presented by the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. As with the annual BIK Policy Monitor, this activity allows us to ensure we can continue positioning national Safer Internet Centres at the centre of the BIK+ initiative.  

We kindly request that SICs confirm their interest and availability to support the evaluation by organising consultations in their respective countries. This involves consulting a minimum of 10 children and young people (under 18 years of age) for approximately 60 minutes.  

 To facilitate the consultations, SICs will receive the following materials in September: 

• Consultation protocol (in English). 
• Child-friendly explainer of the consultation (in the national language). 
• Activity sheets (in the national language). 
• Reporting template (in English). 

SICs are kindly requested to organise the consultations and submit the reports to EUN by 31 October 2024 at the latest.  

Please confirm your interest and availability by sending an email to BIKevaluation@eun.org by Friday, 16 August 2024. 

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

One of the BIK Phase 5 project activities is to carry out a European Union-wide evaluation of the BIK+ strategy every two years. The evaluation involves consultations with various stakeholders, including young people and children, parents and carers, teachers, and expert stakeholders. Ghent University – Research Group: Law & Technology, acting in a subcontractor capacity, is developing a base research methodology for consultations with young people and children (over 12 years of age). 

There is an open call for expressions of interest from expert organisations to organise consultations with children and young people younger than 12 years of age and from various vulnerable backgrounds. 

The application deadline has been extended to 18:00 CEST on Friday, August 16, 2024 (via email).

In case of questions, please reach out to BIKevaluation@eun.org. 

As indicated in previous Insafe Steering Committee exchanges, we intend to actively involve SICs in the BIK+ strategy evaluation going forward, given their instrumental position, relevant expertise and access to key national stakeholders. More information on this will follow soon.   

Please note this item relates to wider INHOPE work not linked with BIK.

The seventh annual INHOPE Summit will take place in hybrid form on 8-9 October 2024. This year's summit will explore two critical topics: our society's understanding and awareness of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and the troubling trend of CSAM commercialisation. 

As the spread of CSAM online reaches unprecedented levels, reporting becomes increasingly vital. Yet, we must confront significant challenges in society's understanding of CSAM and address its economic ties. Join INHOPE as they tackle these pressing issues head-on.  

Read more in the article on the INHOPE website, or discover more on INHOPE events more generally.

Colleagues at Missing Children Europe have launched a campaign on Snapchat (See. Speak. Stop.), which aims to educate young users about recognising, reporting, and seeking help for inappropriate content and wrongful behaviour experienced on the platform. They are keen for Safer Internet Centres to help spread the message with their own networks and via social media. You can find more information about the campaign here and can access and download the videos here.

There are currently versions in Albanian, French, Hungarian, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, Spanish, Dutch and English. Missing Children Europe are keen to hear from any SIC that would be willing to help with the translation into their own language. There is only a small amount of text in the videos, and the translations can be done very quickly. It is also possible to include the logo of the SIC or helpline in these videos. If you would be interested in having a local version created, please contact Karl. 

The biggest conference on online safety in Poland will gather experts from all over Europe to discuss a wide range of issues related to the safety of children and young people online. The event is aimed at professionals working in education and/or working with young people, non-governmental organisations, public administrators, industry representatives. 

It will take place on 24-27 September 2024 in a hybrid format: the plenary sessions (24-25 September) will take place in Warsaw (Focus Hotel Premium) in English, Polish, Polish sign language, and will be streamed online. The workshop sessions (26-27 September) will take place online in Polish. 

You can find more information about the conference on the BIK portal, and register for the conference here. In case of any questions, please contact konferencja@saferinternet.pl.  

• BIK #DigitalSunScreen summer campaign: 10 tips to protect your family online during summer travels

Please submit your public portal blog articles to the BIK content mailbox; please see the note above (under BIK platform redevelopment) about SIC article uploads over the coming months. 

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

Helpline case studies

A number of new helpline case studies have been uploaded recently from colleagues in Ireland, covering a range of topics, including online images, sharing of images, fake accounts, summer work, and online body image. Read these and more in the helpline case repository.

Awareness community of practice

• United we parent: Building a safe online world for our kids (SIC Malta)
• The hidden dangers of sharing passwords among Gen Z in Malta (SIC Malta)
• BeSmartOnline Advisory Board meeting: A recap (SIC Malta)

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