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 Friday, 19 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.

The 2024 European elections – taking place from 6-9 June – are fast approaching, and young people may have questions ahead of voting for the first time. In most EU countries you have to be 18 to vote, but if you live in Austria, Belgium, Germany or Malta, the voting age is 16, while in Greece it’s 17. Regardless of the voting age, however, many young people may be curious about these elections. 

To ensure that young voices are heard, the European Union has produced a vibrant leaflet detailing key information on voting, along with additional information on various EU-related opportunities available to young people to help them shape the Europe of the future.

You can download or order print versions of the leaflet – available in 24 languages – from the Publications Office of the European Union.

Assessment platform submissions are now due for helplines and hotlines reporting on the first quarter of 2024 (January-March inclusive). Supporting documents, including reporting templates and guidelines are available in the BIK community (login first). A reminder that the Good practice guide on helpline data (February 2023) can be accessed in the BIK community here (login first). 

A reminder also that any submissions made via the Excel template should have the .xlsx file extension. 

Please note, the deadline for all submissions is the close of business on Friday, 12 April 2024. For further information, please contact Karl (helplines) or Abby (hotlines).

The next Insafe/INHOPE joint training meeting will take place next week, on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 April 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. The meeting will start at 13:00 on Wednesday 17 April and will finish at 17:00 on Thursday 18 April. There will be some optional activities taking place on the morning of Wednesday – a Media Literacy in the Classroom session and also a visit to the Polish helpline. The Insafe Steering Committee meeting will take place on the morning of Friday, 19 April 2024.

All those who have registered will receive a copy of the training booklet and final agenda in the coming days. For any questions or further information on any aspect of the training meeting, please contact Karl. 

It's the last chance to cast your vote and choose your favourite entry to win the Insafe-INHOPE resource competition! Many thanks to all the SICs and hotlines that submitted entries for this edition of the competition. 

Vote for your favourite here (where you will also find the catalogue of entries) by the close of business today, Monday, 8 April 2024.   

The remaining key dates for the resource competition are as follows: 

In case of queries regarding any aspect of the resource competition, please contact Karl or Annarita.

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Tuesday, 23 April 2024 at 11:00 CEST. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

This new good practice guide focuses on how Safer Internet Centres (SICs), European Consumer Centres (ECCs), and other organisations concerned with children’s and young people’s safer internet use can create, pilot-test, and evaluate their online safety interventions and campaigns in an evidence-based manner. The guide was developed based on a brief survey conducted last year to determine the extent to which SICs, and particularly their awareness centres, already adopt evidence-based practices - thanks again to all who responded.

SICs sometimes have limited resources and time for preparing and pre-testing communication campaigns and conducting impact research. Therefore, this guide offers a practical step-by-step approach so they can create more evidence-based outputs on their own or in collaboration with partners. This guide is created in a modular way to allow readers to pick and choose from a range of practical guidance and insightful resources that match their existing expertise and associated additional information needs. It consists of several sections, starting with a literature review that explores and defines the term ‘evidence-based’ and how it can be implicated in developing campaigns and interventions. In addition, it outlines various models and techniques for developing evidence-based practices. These are then discussed in more depth, followed by the outline of a step-by-step approach based on the Intervention Mapping Protocol (IMP). Finally, a conclusion summarises the key insights.
 
In addition, the guide contains various key terms, which are explained throughout and drawn together in the form of a lexicon annex. To provide more depth to specific sections, ‘info boxes’ can be found throughout the guide which discuss theories, techniques, and concrete examples more extensively.

Read or download the good practice guide here. In case of questions regarding this guide, please contact Valentina.

To help SIC colleagues explore and use the good practice guide further, an online meeting will take place on Thursday, 25 April 2024 at 11:00 CEST (with an anticipated finish time of 12:30 CEST). During the meeting, the author of the guide, Michel Walrave, PhD, Professor at the University of Antwerp (Department of Communication Studies), will give further insights into the value of evidence-based campaigning. Use this link to join. 

This new good practice guide aims to improve cooperation between EU co-funded Safer Internet Centre helplines (part of the Insafe network) and other non-Insafe helplines that run the 116 111 harmonised number and related online services.

Despite current actions, cyberbullying remains the most reported topic to the SIC helplines in the last decade. The guide, therefore, provides information about cyberbullying and how to best support children and young people who have been or are being affected by it. It also signposts to existing resources published by the Insafe network that can be used or referenced by other helplines, as well as parents, caregivers and educators, as appropriate. 

In addition, it offers suggestions for counsellors on how to provide specific support and guidance for young people who are victims of cyberbullying, including some case studies to exemplify the types of issues that helplines are dealing with.

Read or download the good practice guide here. In case of questions regarding this guide, please contact Karl.

Enhancing the visibility of the 116 111 number to address cyberbullying is one of the provisions of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) strategy. Read more about the strategy on the Better Internet for Kids portal.

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 and register to attend 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: all registrations are subject to approval. Registrations close on Wednesday, 24 April 2024 at 17:00 CEST.

Please note, this item relates to INHOPE work delivered under the BIK Phase 5 project.

The INHOPE Expert Insights series of webinars continues as follows:

• How predators online hide in plain sight
  Wednesday, 10 April 2024 - Crisp, a Kroll Business
  
  
• Understanding user safety in the gaming world
  Wednesday, 24 April 2024 - Niantic
  
  
• How innocently uploaded images of children are combined with AI to generate CSAM
  Thursday, 23 May 2024 - Crisp, a Kroll Business
  
  
• Self-care and harm prevention for CSAM analysts
  Wednesday, 12 June 2024 - Catherine Knibbs

Find out more and register for the webinars via the INHOPE website. 

European Youth Week (EYW) is an event organised by the European Commission every second year to celebrate and promote youth engagement, participation, and active citizenship throughout Europe and beyond. This edition will take place from 12 to 19 April 2024, two months before the European elections in June. 

The week's flagship event will take place on Friday, 12 April 2024, at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, gathering together a diverse mix of young people, Commissioners, other European politicians, inspirational speakers and policymakers in the field of youth. Within that context, Better Internet for Kids, in collaboration with the Publications Office of the EU, will be involved in a session called Check your facts! The power of digital skills, critical thinking and open data. It will be completely youth-led, thanks to the participation of two BIK Youth Ambassadors who will chair, moderate and intervene in the opening panel. The session will also include two interactive workshops, helping young people develop their media and data literacy skills to identify disinformation online and explore open data to support them in making informed choices. 

Visit the European Youth Portal for the latest news on the event. 

Save the date for the next BIK Teacher corner webinar on Disinformation and fake news on 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. 

The new #MediaSmartOnline campaign launched on 8 March 2024 in three European countries: Czech Republic, Ireland, and Poland. The campaign aims to raise awareness about all the media literacy actions and initiatives that are currently available for children and young people, and those who are working to upskill them (parents and caregivers, teachers and educators). It is rolled out in cooperation with the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres and the Media & Learning Association.

The campaign is first undergoing a pilot test phase in these three European countries, and will then scale for full roll-out next year, but SICs are already encouraged to use and disseminate the campaign's resources and messages.

Discover more about the campaign on the BIK portal. You can read the results of the mapping exercise of the current EU landscape of media literacy initiatives here.

In addition, we are currently publishing focus articles on the BIK portal addressing some of the key concerns around media literacy: read the articles on artificial intelligence (AI), virtual worlds and the rising importance of disinformation in media literacy; others will follow shortly.

Is there a particular media literacy initiative that you would like to be featured in the campaign? Please contact Annarita.

Please note, this first edition of the campaign is an internal pilot being rolled out in cooperation with a subset of Safer Internet Centres. Following evaluation, it will be further developed and scaled for a fuller rollout in 2025. More information will follow in the coming months. 

The March edition of the BIK bulletin has recently been published. This edition focuses on evidence-based campaigning activities as a method for raising awareness of safer and better internet issues and empowering young people - and those who care for them - to thrive online, and embrace the many benefits offered.

Visit the BIK portal for the bulletin archive, or subscribe to receive future editions direct. 

• Exploring misinformation for a young generation of voters: insights from the Fighting Misinformation Online Google summit
• Better Internet for Kids launches two new good practice guides
• The rising importance of disinformation in media literacy

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.

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

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 Friday, 19 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.

The 2024 European elections – taking place from 6-9 June – are fast approaching, and young people may have questions ahead of voting for the first time. In most EU countries you have to be 18 to vote, but if you live in Austria, Belgium, Germany or Malta, the voting age is 16, while in Greece it’s 17. Regardless of the voting age, however, many young people may be curious about these elections. 

To ensure that young voices are heard, the European Union has produced a vibrant leaflet detailing key information on voting, along with additional information on various EU-related opportunities available to young people to help them shape the Europe of the future.

You can download or order print versions of the leaflet – available in 24 languages – from the Publications Office of the European Union.

Assessment platform submissions are now due for helplines and hotlines reporting on the first quarter of 2024 (January-March inclusive). Supporting documents, including reporting templates and guidelines are available in the BIK community (login first). A reminder that the Good practice guide on helpline data (February 2023) can be accessed in the BIK community here (login first). 

A reminder also that any submissions made via the Excel template should have the .xlsx file extension. 

Please note, the deadline for all submissions is the close of business on Friday, 12 April 2024. For further information, please contact Karl (helplines) or Abby (hotlines).

The next Insafe/INHOPE joint training meeting will take place on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 April 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. The meeting will start at 13:00 on Wednesday 17 April and will finish at 17:00 on Thursday 18 April. There will be some optional activities taking place on the morning of Wednesday – a Media Literacy in the Classroom session and also a visit to the Polish helpline. The Insafe Steering Committee meeting will take place on the morning of Friday, 19 April 2024.

All those who have registered will receive a copy of the training booklet and final agenda in the coming weeks. If you haven’t yet registered but are planning to attend, please get in touch with Karl as soon as possible. For any questions or further information on any aspect of the training meeting, please contact Karl. 

It is now time to cast your vote and choose your favourite entry to win the Insafe-INHOPE resource competition! Many thanks to all the SICs and hotlines that submitted entries for this edition of the competition. 

Vote for your favourite here (where you will also find the catalogue of entries) by the close of business on Monday, 8 April 2024.   

The remaining key dates for the resource competition are as follows: 

In case of queries regarding any aspect of the resource competition, please contact Karl or Annarita.

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Tuesday, 23 April 2024 at 11:00 CEST. Use this link to join the meeting; 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 and register to attend 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: all registrations are subject to approval. Registrations close on Wednesday, 24 April 2024 at 17:00 CEST.

This new good practice guide aims to improve cooperation between EU co-funded Safer Internet Centre helplines (part of the Insafe network) and other non-Insafe helplines that run the 116 111 harmonised number and related online services.

Despite current actions, cyberbullying remains the most reported topic to the SIC helplines in the last decade. The guide, therefore, provides information about cyberbullying and how to best support children and young people who have been or are being affected by it. It also signposts to existing resources published by the Insafe network that can be used or referenced by other helplines, as well as parents, caregivers and educators, as appropriate. 

In addition, it offers suggestions for counsellors on how to provide specific support and guidance for young people who are victims of cyberbullying, including some case studies to exemplify the types of issues that helplines are dealing with.

Read or download the good practice guide here. In case of questions regarding this guide, please contact Karl.

Enhancing the visibility of the 116 111 number to address cyberbullying is one of the provisions of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) strategy. Read more about the strategy on the Better Internet for Kids portal.

This new good practice guide focuses on how Safer Internet Centres (SICs), European Consumer Centres (ECCs), and other organisations concerned with children’s and young people’s safer internet use can create, pilot-test, and evaluate their online safety interventions and campaigns in an evidence-based manner. The guide was developed based on a brief survey conducted last year to determine the extent to which SICs, and particularly their awareness centres, already adopt evidence-based practices - thanks again to all who responded.

SICs sometimes have limited resources and time for preparing and pre-testing communication campaigns and conducting impact research. Therefore, this guide offers a practical step-by-step approach so they can create more evidence-based outputs on their own or in collaboration with partners. This guide is created in a modular way to allow readers to pick and choose from a range of practical guidance and insightful resources that match their existing expertise and associated additional information needs. It consists of several sections, starting with a literature review that explores and defines the term ‘evidence-based’ and how it can be implicated in developing campaigns and interventions. In addition, it outlines various models and techniques for developing evidence-based practices. These are then discussed in more depth, followed by the outline of a step-by-step approach based on the Intervention Mapping Protocol (IMP). Finally, a conclusion summarises the key insights.
 
In addition, the guide contains various key terms, which are explained throughout and drawn together in the form of a lexicon annex. To provide more depth to specific sections, ‘info boxes’ can be found throughout the guide which discuss theories, techniques, and concrete examples more extensively.

Read or download the good practice guide here. In case of questions regarding this guide, please contact Valentina.

To help SIC colleagues explore and use the good practice guide further, an online meeting will take place on Thursday, 25 April 2024 at 11:00 CEST (with an anticipated finish time of 12:30 CEST). During the meeting, the author of the guide, Michel Walrave, PhD, Professor at the University of Antwerp (Department of Communication Studies), will give further insights into the value of evidence-based campaigning. Use this link to join. 

The new #MediaSmartOnline campaign launched on 8 March 2024 in three European countries: Czech Republic, Ireland, and Poland. The campaign aims to raise awareness about all the media literacy actions and initiatives that are currently available for children and young people, and those who are working to upskill them (parents and caregivers, teachers and educators). It is rolled out in cooperation with the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres and the Media & Learning Association.  

The campaign is first undergoing a pilot test phase in these three European countries, and will then scale for full roll-out next year, but SICs are already encouraged to use and disseminate the campaign's resources and messages. 

Discover more about the campaign on the BIK portal. You can read the results of the mapping exercise of the current EU landscape of media literacy initiatives here. 

In addition, we are currently publishing focus articles on the BIK portal addressing some of the key concerns around media literacy: read the articles on artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual worlds; others will follow shortly. 

Is there a particular media literacy initiative that you would like to be featured in the campaign? Please contact Annarita.  

Please note, this first edition of the campaign is an internal pilot being rolled out in cooperation with a subset of Safer Internet Centres. Following evaluation, it will be further developed and scaled for a fuller roll-out in 2025. More information will follow in the coming months. 

European Youth Week (EYW) is an event organised by the European Commission every second year to celebrate and promote youth engagement, participation, and active citizenship throughout Europe and beyond. This edition will take place from 12 to 19 April 2024, two months before the European elections in June. 

The week's flagship event will take place on Friday, 12 April 2024, at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, gathering together a diverse mix of young people, Commissioners, other European politicians, inspirational speakers and policymakers in the field of youth. Within that context, Better Internet for Kids, in collaboration with the Publications Office of the EU, will be involved in a session called Check your facts! The power of digital skills, critical thinking and open data. It will be completely youth-led, thanks to the participation of two BIK Youth Ambassadors who will chair, moderate and intervene in the opening panel. The session will also include two interactive workshops, helping young people develop their media and data literacy skills to identify disinformation online and explore open data to support them in making informed choices. 

Visit the European Youth Portal for the latest news on the event. 

Save the date for the next BIK Teacher corner webinar on Disinformation and fake news on 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. 

The March edition of the BIK bulletin has recently been published. This edition focuses on evidence-based campaigning activities as a method for raising awareness of safer and better internet issues and empowering young people - and those who care for them - to thrive online, and embrace the many benefits offered.

Visit the BIK portal for the bulletin archive, or subscribe to receive future editions direct. 

• A year in review: the work of INHOPE member hotlines in the fight against CSAM
• Latest helpline trends: Quarter 4, 2023
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Sweden (SIC SE)
• Safer Internet Day in Ukraine in wartime (SIC+)
• Her Majesty the Queen of Spain participated in Safer Internet Day 2024 (SIC ES)
• The lights and shadows of virtual worlds and immersive realities
• Content with Conscience conference: reflection from a BIK Youth Ambassador
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Ireland: Tech in our world (SIC IE)
• Highlight on the Safer Internet Day campaign: Connected, engaged, and you? (SIC FR)

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

• An assault between minors is disseminated on Telegram

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

Please note, as next Monday (01/04) will be a public holiday in many places, next week’s Weekly Update will be issued on Tuesday (02/04).

The 2024 European elections – taking place from 6-9 June – are fast approaching, and young people may have questions ahead of voting for the first time. In most EU countries you have to be 18 to vote, but if you live in Austria, Belgium, Germany or Malta, the voting age is 16, while in Greece it’s 17. Regardless of the voting age, however, many young people may be curious about these elections. 

To ensure that young voices are heard, the European Union has produced a vibrant leaflet detailing key information on voting, along with additional information on various EU-related opportunities available to young people to help them shape the Europe of the future.

You can download or order print versions of the leaflet – available in 24 languages – from the Publications Office of the European Union.

The next online meeting for youth coordinators will take place on Thursday, 28 March 2024 at 14:00 CET. During this meeting, Liudas Mikalkevičius from the Lithuanian Safer Internet Centre will discuss the International Youth Camp, a new idea for a collaborative activity among interested SICs. Access the meeting using this link; for further information, please contact Eray.

An online meeting with colleagues from Video Games Europe (VGE, formerly the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE)) and some of its members will take place on Thursday, 28 March 2024 from 14:30 CET to 16:00 CET. The session will provide updates on VGE’s work, with a focus also on virtual worlds. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

The next Insafe/INHOPE joint training meeting will take place on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 April 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. The meeting will start at 13:00 on Wednesday 17 April and will finish at 17:00 on Thursday 18 April. There will be some optional activities taking place on the morning of Wednesday – a Media Literacy in the Classroom session and also a visit to the Polish helpline. The Insafe Steering Committee meeting will take place on the morning of Friday, 19 April 2024.

All those who have registered will receive a copy of the training booklet and final agenda in the coming weeks. If you haven’t yet registered but are planning to attend, please get in touch with Karl as soon as possible. For any questions or further information on any aspect of the training meeting, please contact Karl. 

It is now time to cast your vote and choose your favourite entry to win the Insafe-INHOPE resource competition! Many thanks to all the SICs and hotlines that submitted entries for this edition of the competition. 

Vote for your favourite here (where you will also find the catalogue of entries) by the close of business on Monday, 8 April 2024.   

The remaining key dates for the resource competition are as follows: 

In case of queries regarding any aspect of the resource competition, please contact Karl or Annarita.

This new good practice guide aims to improve cooperation between EU co-funded Safer Internet Centre helplines (part of the Insafe network) and other non-Insafe helplines that run the 116 111 harmonised number and related online services.

Despite current actions, cyberbullying remains the most reported topic to the SIC helplines in the last decade. The guide, therefore, provides information about cyberbullying and how to best support children and young people who have been or are being affected by it. It also signposts to existing resources published by the Insafe network that can be used or referenced by other helplines, as well as parents, caregivers and educators, as appropriate. 

In addition, it offers suggestions for counsellors on how to provide specific support and guidance for young people who are victims of cyberbullying, including some case studies to exemplify the types of issues that helplines are dealing with.

Read or download the good practice guide here. In case of questions regarding this guide, please contact Karl.

Enhancing the visibility of the 116 111 number to address cyberbullying is one of the provisions of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) strategy. Read more about the strategy on the Better Internet for Kids portal.

This new good practice guide focuses on how Safer Internet Centres (SICs), European Consumer Centres (ECCs), and other organisations concerned with children’s and young people’s safer internet use can create, pilot-test, and evaluate their online safety interventions and campaigns in an evidence-based manner. The guide was developed based on a brief survey conducted last year to determine the extent to which SICs, and particularly their awareness centres, already adopt evidence-based practices - thanks again to all who responded.

SICs sometimes have limited resources and time for preparing and pre-testing communication campaigns and conducting impact research. Therefore, this guide offers a practical step-by-step approach so they can create more evidence-based outputs on their own or in collaboration with partners. This guide is created in a modular way to allow readers to pick and choose from a range of practical guidance and insightful resources that match their existing expertise and associated additional information needs. It consists of several sections, starting with a literature review that explores and defines the term ‘evidence-based’ and how it can be implicated in developing campaigns and interventions. In addition, it outlines various models and techniques for developing evidence-based practices. These are then discussed in more depth, followed by the outline of a step-by-step approach based on the Intervention Mapping Protocol (IMP). Finally, a conclusion summarises the key insights.
 
In addition, the guide contains various key terms, which are explained throughout and drawn together in the form of a lexicon annex. To provide more depth to specific sections, ‘info boxes’ can be found throughout the guide which discuss theories, techniques, and concrete examples more extensively.

Read or download the good practice guide here. In case of questions regarding this guide, please contact Valentina.

To help SIC colleagues explore and use the good practice guide further, an online meeting will take place on Thursday, 25 April 2024 at 11:00 CEST (with an anticipated finish time of 12:30 CEST). During the meeting, the author of the guide, Michel Walrave, PhD, Professor at the University of Antwerp (Department of Communication Studies), will give further insights into the value of evidence-based campaigning. Use this link to join. 

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Tuesday, 23 April 2024 at 11:00 CEST. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

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. Registration/joining details will be shared shortly.

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.  

The new #MediaSmartOnline campaign launched on 8 March 2024 in three European countries: Czech Republic, Ireland, and Poland. The campaign aims to raise awareness about all the media literacy actions and initiatives that are currently available for children and young people, and those who are working to upskill them (parents and caregivers, teachers and educators). It is rolled out in cooperation with the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres and the Media & Learning Association.  

The campaign is first undergoing a pilot test phase in these three European countries, and will then scale for full roll-out next year, but SICs are already encouraged to use and disseminate the campaign's resources and messages. 

Discover more about the campaign on the BIK portal. You can read the results of the mapping exercise of the current EU landscape of media literacy initiatives here. 

In addition, we are currently publishing focus articles on the BIK portal addressing some of the key concerns around media literacy: the first on artificial intelligence (AI) is already available, and others will follow shortly. 

Is there a particular media literacy initiative that you would like to be featured in the campaign? Please contact Annarita.  

A new BIK MOOC (massive open online course) launched earlier in March, and will run for approximately 4 weeks. This course provides background information and understanding of key initiatives that are shaping the digital experiences of children and young people. It also explores how teachers and schools can help to protect and promote children's rights in a digital world, how education can empower children and young people with the necessary skills and competences for the Digital Decade, and methods to encourage all youth to actively participate in shaping a better and safer internet.

The course is targeted at primary and secondary school teachers of any subject. Other educational professionals and stakeholders, such as heads of schools, school support staff, and policymakers with an interest in this topic are also welcome to join.

Enrolment is still possible; find out more via the European Schoolnet Academy.

• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Romania: parents' perspective on their children's online activities (SIC RO)
• Is social media addictive? (SIC DE)
• Highlight on the Safer Internet Day campaign: Connected, engaged, and you? (SIC FR)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Poland (SIC PL)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Norway: harmful content in the digital era (SIC NO)
• Content with Conscience conference in Brussels (SIC HR)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Luxembourg (SIC LU)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Greece: a large event at the Ministry of Education (SIC GR)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Lithuania: the importance of digital hygiene (SIC LT)
• International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination 2024
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Latvia (SIC LV)
• International Day of Happiness 2024
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Colombia (SIC+)
• The rising importance of artificial intelligence (AI) literacy

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.

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

• Austria's annual Youth Internet Monitor has shown that all social networks have lost users with the exception of BeReal. WhatsApp (-20%) and YouTube (-24%) were hit the hardest. Have you had similar experiences in your country? Join the conversation in the Facebook group...

The next Insafe/INHOPE joint training meeting will take place on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 April 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. The meeting will start at 13:00 on Wednesday 17 April and will finish at 17:00 on Thursday 18 April. There will be some optional activities taking place on the morning of Wednesday – a Media Literacy in the Classroom session and also a visit to the Polish helpline. The Insafe Steering Committee meeting will take place on the morning of Friday, 19 April 2024.

All those who have registered will receive a copy of the training booklet and final agenda in the coming weeks. If you haven’t yet registered but are planning to attend, please get in touch with Karl as soon as possible. For any questions or further information on any aspect of the training meeting, please contact Karl. 

As usual, there will be a resource competition taking place as part of the upcoming training meeting. As this is a joint Insafe/INHOPE training meeting, all EC co-funded SICs and INHOPE hotlines are welcome to take part in the competition with the chance of winning €5,000 which must be used to make the resource accessible to the wider network. Typically, the funds would be used for translation and/or adaptation.   

The resource could be a video, brochure, book, research report, learning materials – anything that would be of interest and use to the wider network. The focus of this edition of the resource competition will be on children and young people aged 12 to 18. SICs and hotlines are invited to submit any resource which targets or is aimed at this particular group.   

Those wishing to take part should submit an entry using this short online form. Please remember that each country can only submit one resource. If you are unsure if a particular resource will fit the requirements, please contact Karl or Annarita to discuss.  

Please find below an outline of the upcoming deadlines related to the resource competition:

Remember, a resource competition entry will count towards your SIC’s lump sum mechanism (LSM) criteria for 2024.

Please note, this item relates to INHOPE work delivered under the BIK Phase 5 project.

What is happening in online child protection? 2023 marked a year of rapid growth and progress for the INHOPE network. Driven by the vision of a digital world free from child sexual abuse material (CSAM), INHOPE remained proactive in countering emerging threats, enhancing its technological infrastructure, and supporting hotline analysts around the world. The INHOPE Annual Report 2023 presents insights from 54 hotlines around the world processing reports of CSAM. 

Join INHOPE's Kalina Zografska and Abby Roberts on Thursday, 20 March 2024 at 16:00 CET for this exclusive webinar that will take you through the key data and trends from 2023, and discover more about how INHOPE has been working with key stakeholders to improve the safety of young people online.

Find out more and register via the INHOPE website. 

An online meeting with colleagues from Video Games Europe (VGE, formerly the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE)) and some of its members will take place on Thursday, 28 March 2024 from 14:30 CET to 16:00 CET. The session will provide updates on VGE’s work, with a focus also on virtual worlds. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

Many thanks to those people who joined the recent meeting. A short report is available from the BIK community (login first) along with a link to the recording of the meeting. 

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Tuesday, 23 April 2024 at 11:00 CEST. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

An online meeting will take place on Thursday, 25 April 2024 to launch a good practice guide which focuses on evidence-based awareness campaigning. The meeting is scheduled to start at 11:00 CEST with a tentative finish time of 12:30 CEST; however, the full time may not be needed. Use this link to join. Please note that there will be further information shared here once the guide is published, but please save the date in the meantime. For further information, please contact Karl. 

A new BIK MOOC (massive open online course) launched last Monday, and will run for approximately 4 weeks. This course provides background information and understanding of key initiatives that are shaping the digital experiences of children and young people. It also explores how teachers and schools can help to protect and promote children's rights in a digital world, how education can empower children and young people with the necessary skills and competences for the Digital Decade, and methods to encourage all youth to actively participate in shaping a better and safer internet.

The course is targeted at primary and secondary school teachers of any subject. Other educational professionals and stakeholders, such as heads of schools, school support staff, and policymakers with an interest in this topic are also welcome to join.

Enrolment is still possible; find out more via the European Schoolnet Academy.

• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Bosnia and Herzegovina: the importance of safe usage of digital technologies
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Iceland (SIC IS)
• Finland’s Media Literacy Week: issues of media usage and well-being (SIC FI)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Serbia: safety without exception
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Slovenia: focus on cyberbullying (SIC SI)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Germany tackles pornography (SIC DE)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Austria: Beauty ideals on the internet (SIC AT)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in the Netherlands: Together for a better internet (SIC NL)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Denmark: children and video games (SIC DK)
• Croatia celebrates Safer Internet Day 2024 with a high-level public forum (SIC HR)

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.

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

The next Insafe/INHOPE joint training meeting will take place on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 April 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. The meeting will start at 13:00 on Wednesday 17 April and will finish at 17:00 on Thursday 18 April. There will be some optional activities taking place on the morning of Wednesday – a Media Literacy in the Classroom session and also a visit to the Polish helpline. The Insafe Steering Committee meeting will take place on the morning of Friday, 19 April 2024.

All those who have registered will receive a copy of the training booklet and final agenda in the coming weeks. If you haven’t yet registered but are planning to attend, please get in touch with Karl as soon as possible. For any questions or further information on any aspect of the training meeting, please contact Karl. 

As usual, there will be a resource competition taking place as part of the upcoming training meeting. As this is a joint Insafe/INHOPE training meeting, all EC co-funded SICs and INHOPE hotlines are welcome to take part in the competition with the chance of winning €5,000 which must be used to make the resource accessible to the wider network. Typically, the funds would be used for translation and/or adaptation.   

The resource could be a video, brochure, book, research report, learning materials – anything that would be of interest and use to the wider network. The focus of this edition of the resource competition will be on children and young people aged 12 to 18. SICs and hotlines are invited to submit any resource which targets or is aimed at this particular group.   

Those wishing to take part should submit an entry using this short online form. Please remember that each country can only submit one resource. If you are unsure if a particular resource will fit the requirements, please contact Karl or Annarita to discuss.  

Please find below an outline of the upcoming deadlines related to the resource competition:

Many thanks to those people who joined the meeting last week. A short report is available from the BIK community (login first) along with a link to the recording of the meeting. 

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Tuesday, 23 April 2024 at 11:00 CEST. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

An online meeting will take place on Thursday, 25 April 2024 to launch a good practice guide which focuses on evidence-based awareness campaigning. The meeting is scheduled to start at 11:00 CEST with a tentative finish time of 12:30 CEST; however, the full time may not be needed. Use this link to join. Please note that there will be further information shared here once the guide is published, but please save the date in the meantime. For further information, please contact Karl. 

Please note, this item relates to INHOPE work delivered under the BIK Phase 5 project.

What is happening in online child protection? 2023 marked a year of rapid growth and progress for the INHOPE network. Driven by the vision of a digital world free from child sexual abuse material (CSAM), INHOPE remained proactive in countering emerging threats, enhancing its technological infrastructure, and supporting hotline analysts around the world. The INHOPE Annual Report 2023 presents insights from 54 hotlines around the world processing reports of CSAM. 

Join INHOPE's Kalina Zografska and Abby Roberts on Thursday, 20 March 2024 at 16:00 CET for this exclusive webinar that will take you through the key data and trends from 2023, and discover more about how INHOPE has been working with key stakeholders to improve the safety of young people online.

Find out more and register via the INHOPE website. 

A reminder that a new #MediaSmartOnline campaign launched on 8 March 2024 in three European countries: Czech Republic, Ireland, and Poland. The campaign aims to raise awareness about all the media literacy actions and initiatives that are currently available for children and young people, and those who are working to upskill them (parents and caregivers, teachers and educators). It is rolled out in cooperation with the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres and the Media & Learning Association.  

The campaign is first undergoing a pilot test phase in these three European countries, and will then scale for full roll-out next year, but SICs are already encouraged to use and disseminate the campaign's resources and messages. 

Discover more about the campaign on the BIK portal. 

Is there a particular media literacy initiative that you would like to be featured in the campaign? Please contact Annarita.  

A new BIK MOOC (massive open online course) launches today, Monday, 11 March 2024, for approximately 4 weeks. This course provides background information and understanding of key initiatives that are shaping the digital experiences of children and young people. It also explores how teachers and schools can help to protect and promote children's rights in a digital world, how education can empower children and young people with the necessary skills and competences for the Digital Decade, and methods to encourage all youth to actively participate in shaping a better and safer internet.

The course is targeted at primary and secondary school teachers of any subject. Other educational professionals and stakeholders, such as heads of schools, school support staff, and policymakers with an interest in this topic are also welcome to join.

Enrolment is still possible: find out more via the European Schoolnet Academy.

The next edition of the BIK bulletin will be published at the end of March with a focus on the global celebration of Safer Internet Day (SID) 2024, the latest developments with the Digital Services Act (DSA), and two new campaigns: AdWiseOnline - focusing on consumer and youth protection (see also above), and MediaSmartOnline - focusing on media literacy. 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 COB today - Monday, 11 March 2024 (or sooner if possible) and all contributions or queries should be addressed to content@betterinternetforkids.eu.

• New podcast on digital parenting for Safer Internet Day 2024 in Belgium (SIC BE)
• New campaign #MediaSmartOnline launches today

Remember to submit your public portal blog articles to the BIK content mailbox; they count towards your SIC’s lump sum mechanism (LSM) criteria.

Helpline community of practice

• Online meeting on DSA with the European Commission 1 March 2024
• Early warning group - report from meeting on 6 March 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.

• 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

The latest helpline quarterly report, based on data from Q4 (October-December 2023), has now been published and is available from the BIK community (login first). It also contains comparisons between 2022 and 2023. Please contact Karl if you have any questions or need any further information.

The next Insafe/INHOPE joint training meeting will take place on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 April 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. The meeting will start at 13:00 on Wednesday 17 April and will finish at 17:00 on Thursday 18 April. There will be some optional activities taking place on the morning of Wednesday – a Media Literacy in the Classroom session and also a visit to the Polish helpline. The Insafe Steering Committee meeting will take place on the morning of Friday, 19 April 2024.

The meeting will be held at the Airport Hotel Okęcie. A special room rate is available; access this by going to the hotel website, click book a room, then in the upper right corner click enter code. The code to use is EUN. 

Register here for the training meeting (the link includes information on the draft agenda, as well as the networking dinner and other side events). We have extended registration until COB on Thursday, 7 March 2024, so please make sure you have registered by then. For any questions or further information on any aspect of the training meeting, please contact Karl. 

As usual, there will be a resource competition taking place as part of the upcoming training meeting. As this is a joint Insafe/INHOPE training meeting, all EC co-funded SICs and INHOPE hotlines are welcome to take part in the competition with the chance of winning €5,000 which must be used to make the resource accessible to the wider network. Typically, the funds would be used for translation and/or adaptation.   

The resource could be a video, brochure, book, research report, learning materials – anything that would be of interest and use to the wider network. The focus of this edition of the resource competition will be on children and young people aged 12 to 18. SICs and hotlines are invited to submit any resource which targets or is aimed at this particular group.   

Those wishing to take part should submit an entry using this short online form. Please remember that each country can only submit one resource. If you are unsure if a particular resource will fit the requirements, please contact Karl or Annarita to discuss.  

Please find below an outline of the upcoming deadlines related to the resource competition:

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Wednesday, 6 March 2024 at the slightly later starting time of 14:15 CET. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

Please note, this item relates to INHOPE work delivered under the BIK Phase 5 project.

On Thursday, 7 March 2024, INHOPE is hosting its second Expert Insights Webinar of 2024. AI-generated CSAM (child sexual abuse material) is an emerging form of abuse material that can be generated at the push of a button. It poses a new threat to online child safety, law enforcement agencies (LEAs), and hotlines all over the world. Join this webinar for an in-depth overview of the latest insights from the recent Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) report on AI abuse. Through case studies, Alex from IWF will shed light on analytical findings drawn from discussions between AI CSAM perpetrators on the dark web. Find out more and register via the INHOPE website. 

The new #MediaSmartOnline campaign launches on 8 March 2024 in three European countries: Czech Republic, Ireland, and Poland. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness about all the media literacy actions and initiatives that are currently available for children and young people, and those who are working to upskill them (parents and caregivers, teachers and educators). It is rolled out in cooperation with the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres and the Media & Learning Association.  

The campaign is first undergoing a pilot test phase in these three European countries, and will then scale for full roll-out next year, but SICs are already encouraged to use and disseminate the campaign's resources and messages. 

Discover more about the campaign on the BIK portal. 

Is there a particular media literacy initiative that you would like to be featured in the campaign? Please contact Annarita.  

A new BIK MOOC (massive open online course) will launch on Monday, 11 March 2024 for a duration of approximately 4 weeks. This course will provide background information and understanding of key initiatives that are shaping the digital experiences of children and young people. It will also explore how teachers and schools can help to protect and promote children's rights in a digital world, how education can empower children and young people with the necessary skills and competences for the Digital Decade, and methods to encourage all youth to actively participate in shaping a better and safer internet.

The course is targeted at primary and secondary school teachers of any subject. Other educational professionals and stakeholders, such as heads of schools, school support staff, and policymakers with an interest in this topic are also welcome to join.

Find out more and enrol on the European Schoolnet Academy.

Safer Internet Centres are kindly asked to reshare the MOOC details through their own channels.

The next edition of the BIK bulletin will be published at the end of March with a focus on the global celebration of Safer Internet Day (SID) 2024, the latest developments with the Digital Services Act (DSA), and two new campaigns: AdWiseOnline - focusing on consumer and youth protection (see also above), and MediaSmartOnline - focusing on media literacy. 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 COB on Monday, 11 March 2024 (or sooner if possible) and all contributions or queries should be addressed to content@betterinternetforkids.eu.

As a reminder, we generally suggest that articles should be 300 - 600 words in length (but longer focus pieces are fine too), along with copyright-cleared images/photographs/logos if appropriate. The BIK team reserves the right to edit contributions for house style etc., but we try to keep this to a minimum. See the content contribution guidelines here.

• Empowering internet safety: celebrating Safer Internet Day 2024 across Greece (SIC GR)
• Safer Internet Day 2024 in Hungary: phishing, online harassment, and artificial intelligence (SIC HR)
• Seran's journey to SIF as a BIK Youth Panellist (BIK Youth/SIC AT)

Remember to submit your public portal blog articles to the BIK content mailbox; they count towards your SIC’s lump sum mechanism (LSM) criteria.

Helpline community of practice

• Teens ask more nuanced questions about online legality (SIC DK)
• Old technology offers new possibilities (SIC DK)

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.

• New youth study on "Beauty Ideals Online", highlighting the impact of digital media on young people's self-image (including infographic in EN) (SIC AT)
• Last call for print copies of the user-friendly DSA booklet in national languages

• 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 (launching 8 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

In the framework of SIC support to the implementation of the DSA, the European Commission would like to understand which type of survey(s) (type, frequency and, to the extent possible, scope) you envisage under the new grant agreement/in the months ahead. The EC would like to take advantage of possible surveys already carried out at the national level on the use of certain VLOPs and other apps to have a better overview of where minors encounter risks to privacy, safety and security most frequently and what the most popular VLOPs/services for minors are. 

Please respond to Karl by email as soon as possible, and by close of business on Thursday, 22 February 2024 at the latest. 

As mentioned last week, we are exploring options for making print copies of the user-friendly booklet of the Digital Services Act (DSA) provisions for the protection of minors available to Safer Internet Centres (at no or minimal cost) and therefore wish to gauge interest from the network. As such, Safer Internet Centres are invited to contact Annarita with an indication of which languages they would want and in what quantity before COB on Wednesday, 21 February 2024. We will then review all requests to see what is possible and confirm the next steps in a future Weekly Update.

The next Insafe/INHOPE joint training meeting will take place on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 April 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. The meeting will start at 13:00 on Wednesday 17 April and will finish at 17:00 on Thursday 18 April. There will be some optional activities taking place on the morning of Wednesday – a Media Literacy in the Classroom session and also a visit to the Polish helpline. The Insafe Steering Committee meeting will take place on the morning of Friday, 19 April 2024. There will be some optional activities taking place on the morning of Wednesday – a Media Literacy in the Classroom session and also a visit to the Polish helpline.

The meeting will be held at the Airport Hotel Okęcie. A special room rate is available; access this by going to the hotel website, click book a room, then in the upper right corner click enter code. The code to use is EUN. 

Registration is now open for the training meeting and includes information on the draft agenda, as well as the networking dinner and other side events. Please register as soon as possible and by COB on Thursday, 29 February 2024 at the latest. For any questions or further information on any aspect of the training meeting, please contact Karl. 

Thanks to all those who joined the recent online meeting and many thanks to Emil for a fascinating presentation. A report from the meeting along with a link to the presentation and recording are available from the BIK community (login first). For further information, please contact Karl.

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Wednesday, 6 March 2024 at 14:00 CET. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

The EU policy roundtable, hosted by the menABLE project, will bring together a diverse group of public and private stakeholders, including policymakers, representatives from civil society, academia, industries, education and young people to discuss priorities in tackling gender-based violence (GBV) online. The primary objective of the roundtable is to present and discuss the research findings of the menABLE Research Report – an empirical study on understanding and responding to gender-based violence online; and the Educational Toolbox concept - a plug-and-play game to prevent and combat gender-based violence online.

The roundtable will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, 20 February 2024, in Brussels and online. For more information about the event, agenda, speakers’ bios and registration, please visit the menABLE website. 

Registration for online participation remains open until the end of today.

The European Digital and Media Literacy Conference is taking place next week, from Tuesday, 27 February 2024 to Friday, 1 March 2024 in Brussels. It puts the many faces of digital and media literacy in the European spotlight during the Belgian EU presidency. The conference is focused on showcasing and exchanging initiatives, tools, projects and practices that can be integrated into your own work or policy. Meet and connect with professionals from around the EU and from all policy levels. Let’s strengthen European cooperation and the future of Digital and Media Literacy! Attending the conference is free, but you need to apply to ensure a good European spread of participants. SIC representatives are warmly invited to participate. 

More information is available from www.medialiteracymatters.eu. In case of questions, please contact Andy Demeulenaere (Coordinator at Mediawijs).

A kind reminder that SICs are requested to proceed with compiling their Safer Internet Day 2024 results by completing the customary SID reporting template (including a blog article). The deadline for submissions is COB on Tuesday, 5 March 2024 (although you are welcome to send blog articles sooner to support post-SID dissemination activities).

Submissions and queries should be directed to saferinternetday@betterinternetforkids.eu. We recognise that many SICs continue to celebrate SID throughout the whole month; if this reporting date poses an issue for you, please let us know as soon as possible.

A new AdWiseOnline campaign launched on Safer Internet Day 2024 as part of a range of new initiatives within the current BIK Phase 5 project. Its key aim is to raise children's and young people's awareness of digital marketing practices and empower them with knowledge about their economic rights. Informed by research, the campaign will focus on a range of (potentially problematic) practices such as influencer and in-game marketing. A research report - Manipulative digital marketing practices targeting children and young people - was published as part of the launch activities, and awareness raising will continue throughout March and April 2024 across various BIK communication channels.

Discover more about the initiative on the BIK portal and in a launch article here.

Please note, this first edition of the campaign is an internal pilot being rolled out in cooperation with a subset of Safer Internet Centres and European Consumer Centres (ECCs) in collaboration with a campaign Task Force. Following evaluation, it will be scaled for full roll-out in 2025, but SICs are already invited to use and disseminate the campaign's resources and messages. 

In case of any questions about the AdWiseOnline campaign, please contact Inna.

A new BIK MOOC (massive open online course) will launch on Monday, 11 March 2024 for a duration of approximately 4 weeks. This course will provide background information and understanding of key initiatives that are shaping the digital experiences of children and young people. It will also explore how teachers and schools can help to protect and promote children's rights in a digital world, how education can empower children and young people with the necessary skills and competences for the Digital Decade, and methods to encourage all youth to actively participate in shaping a better and safer internet.

The course is targeted at primary and secondary school teachers of any subject. Other educational professionals and stakeholders, such as heads of schools, school support staff, and policymakers with an interest in this topic are also welcome to join.

Find out more and enrol on the European Schoolnet Academy.

Safer Internet Centres are kindly asked to reshare the MOOC details through their own channels.

You may recall that, towards the end of last year, we issued a call for members for a new BIK Teacher Voice Panel to give input on ideas, initiatives and resources, so that we can better meet the needs of this stakeholder group. Panel members may also be called on periodically to provide representation at the BIK Advisory Board, the annual Safer Internet Forum (SIF), project focus groups and task forces (on topics such as youth consumer protection and age verification), and high-level consultations on online safety matters.

Last week, we organised a high-level focus group on the Digital Services Act (DSA) in schools on behalf of the EC as part of Safer Internet Day celebrations. The first BIK Teacher Voice panellists participated, giving excellent insights into the current opportunities and challenges in education. As we have more of these opportunities coming up, we are keen to build a wide and diverse teacher base to call upon. As such, Safer Internet Centres are kindly asked to reshare the call through their own channels.

Those interested in applying to join the panel should complete a short online form, including a brief motivation statement and a summary of relevant experience. Please note, to participate in this call, teachers and educators should:

• Be actively teaching in an EU country.
• Be actively teaching children and young people in pre-school, primary or secondary education (until the age of 18 years old).
• Have an awareness of online safety and media literacy issues.
• Be able to express ideas and opinions clearly in English in both written and spoken form.

Further information on the BIK Teacher Voice Panel is available here, where online applications can also be made.

The next edition of the BIK bulletin will be published at the end of March with a focus on the global celebration of Safer Internet Day (SID) 2024, the latest developments with the Digital Services Act (DSA), and two new campaigns: AdWiseOnline - focusing on consumer and youth protection (see also above), and MediaSmartOnline - focusing on media literacy. 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 COB on Monday, 11 March 2024 (or sooner if possible) and all contributions or queries should be addressed to content@betterinternetforkids.eu.

As a reminder, we generally suggest that articles should be 300 - 600 words in length (but longer focus pieces are fine too), along with copyright-cleared images/photographs/logos if appropriate. The BIK team reserves the right to edit contributions for house style etc., but we try to keep this to a minimum. See the content contribution guidelines here.

• Insights from Vibeke: BIK Youth Panel Q&A session (SIC DK)
• Safer Internet Day 2024: Artificial Intelligence (AI) risks and opportunities for children and young people (SIC GR)

Remember to submit your public portal blog articles to the BIK content mailbox; they count towards your SIC’s lump sum mechanism (LSM) criteria.

Helpline case studies

• Threat of spreading sexual content (SIC FR)

Awareness community of practice

• WhatsApp - Update including a change to the minimum age - now 13 (see Facebook group post also)
• Student competitions on the occasion of SID 2024 in Greece (SIC GR)
• Diving into the challenges, risks and opportunities from the use of AI (SIC GR)
• Online misogyny and incel culture

Helpline community of practice

• Trusted flaggers - online meeting with helplines and hotlines - 14/2/24
• WhatsApp - Update including a change to the minimum age - now 13 (see Facebook group post also)

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.

• WhatsApp - changes to terms and conditions and minimum age (in some countries) (see Community of Practice posts above also).

• 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):
  #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

The 21st edition of Safer Internet Day - which took place last Tuesday, 6 February - was once again a great success. Thanks to all Safer Internet Centres and colleagues for your support and enthusiasm in marking the day – read an initial overview article on the BIK public portal. See also What's been happening on the BIK public portal? (below) for more announcements from the day.

SICs are now requested to proceed with compiling their own results by completing the customary SID reporting template (including a blog article). The deadline for submissions is COB on Tuesday, 5 March 2024 (although you are welcome to send blog articles sooner to support post-SID dissemination activities). Submissions and queries should be directed to  saferinternetday@betterinternetforkids.eu. We recognise that many SICs continue to celebrate SID throughout the whole month; if this reporting date poses an issue for you, please let us know as soon as possible.

INHOPE actively engages in the development of resources, campaigns, and events to support Safer Internet Day. By collaborating, launching, and promoting impactful initiatives, INHOPE aims to address online safety challenges within its domain and lead the way for change. 

This year, INHOPE highlighted its member hotlines' contributions to a safer internet which, despite originating at a local level, resonate globally. From Germany to Greece, Australia to Albania, and Colombia, the initiatives of INHOPE members span the globe. In collaboration with partner organisations, they tackled issues ranging from pornography and sexual content to artificial intelligence and education. Discover more in this article on the INHOPE website.  

As mentioned last week, the user-friendly booklet of the Digital Services Act (DSA) provisions for the protection of minors was published on Safer Internet Day and is available to download from the website of the Publications Office of the European Union in all EU languages.

We are exploring options for making print copies available to Safer Internet Centres (at no or minimal cost) and therefore wish to gauge interest from the network. As such, Safer Internet Centres are invited to contact Annarita with an indication of which languages they would want and in what quantity before COB on Wednesday, 21 February 2024. We will then review all requests to see what is possible and confirm the next steps in a future Weekly Update.

The next Insafe/INHOPE joint training meeting will take place on Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 April 2024 in Warsaw, Poland. The meeting will start at 13:00 on Wednesday 17 April and will finish at 17:00 on Thursday 18 April. There will be some optional activities taking place on the morning of Wednesday – a Media Literacy in the Classroom session and also a visit to the Polish helpline. The Insafe Steering Committee meeting will take place on the morning of Friday, 19 April 2024.

The meeting will be held at the Airport Hotel Okęcie. A special room rate is available; access this by going to the hotel website, click book a room, then in the upper right corner click enter code. The code to use is EUN. 

Registration is now open for the training meeting and includes information on the draft agenda, as well as the networking dinner and other side events. Please register as soon as possible and by COB on Thursday, 29 February 2024 at the latest. For any questions or further information on any aspect of the training meeting, please contact Karl. 

Thanks to all those who joined the online meeting this morning; notes are being prepared and will be uploaded to the BIK community in the coming days/shared in the next Weekly Update. For further information in the meantime, please contact Karl.

Several colleagues from helplines and hotlines have already been approached by the organisation expected to become the Digital Services Coordinator (DSC) in their country and asked to consider applying to become a trusted flagger under the auspices of the Digital Services Act (DSA). This meeting, taking place online on Wednesday, 14 February 2024 at 14:00 CET, will be an opportunity to share experiences about the local negotiations that are taking place and to discuss good practice, financial implications, workload etc. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

Meta will hold an online policy briefing at 16:00 CET on Wednesday, 14 February 2024. The briefing will be led by Anne Hobson (from the Reality Labs policy team) and will provide an opportunity to hear about the current safety features for children and young people within Quest and Horizon Worlds. Please let Karl know if you would like to attend. Many thanks to those helplines who have already expressed their interest – hopefully you should have received an invitation already; please let Karl know if you haven’t. 

This webinar series is part of the Better Internet for Kids project, funded by the European Commission.

INHOPE is kicking off the 2024 Expert Insights Webinar series with a unique insight into youth empowerment on online platforms. Join online on Thursday, 15 February 2024 at 14:00 CET for a deep dive into the safety measures ZEPETO develops and implements in their metaverse to keep their users safe, informed, and empowered. 
  
What tools do they develop and use to detect harm? What features do they utilise to inform and empower their users? How do they educate their community about online safety? Speaker Elyse Lee, Head of Global Policy and Engagement at ZEPETO, provides a unique insight into what ZEPETO has done to empower the young people who navigate their metaverse. 

Further information and registration are available from the INHOPE website. 

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Wednesday, 6 March 2024 at 14:00 CET. Use this link to join the meeting; for further information, please contact Karl.

The online meeting with colleagues from Video Games Europe (VGE, formerly the Interactive Software Federation of Europe (ISFE)) and some of its members (previously planned for the morning of Thursday, 15 February 2024) is being rescheduled. The new date and joining information will be shared as soon as possible. For further information in the meantime, please contact Karl.

A new AdWiseOnline campaign launched on Safer Internet Day 2024 as part of a range of new initiatives within the current BIK Phase 5 project. Its key aim is to raise children's and young people's awareness of digital marketing practices and empower them with knowledge about their economic rights. Informed by research, the campaign will focus on a range of (potentially problematic) practices such as influencer and in-game marketing. A research report - Manipulative digital marketing practices targeting children and young people - was published last week as part of the launch activities, and awareness raising will continue throughout March and April 2024 across various BIK communication channels.

Discover more about the initiative on the BIK portal and in a launch article here.

Please note, this first edition of the campaign is an internal pilot being rolled out in cooperation with a subset of Safer Internet Centres and European Consumer Centres (ECCs) in collaboration with a campaign Task Force. Following evaluation, it will be scaled for full roll-out in 2025, but SICs are already invited to use and disseminate the campaign's resources and messages. 

In case of any questions about the AdWiseOnline campaign, please contact Inna.

A new BIK MOOC (massive open online course) will launch on Monday, 11 March 2024 for a duration of approximately 5 weeks. This course will provide background information and understanding of key initiatives that are shaping the digital experiences of children and young people. It will also explore how teachers and schools can help to protect and promote children's rights in a digital world, how education can empower children and young people with the necessary skills and competences for the Digital Decade, and methods to encourage all youth to actively participate in shaping a better and safer internet.

The course is targeted at primary and secondary school teachers of any subject. Other educational professionals and stakeholders, such as heads of schools, school support staff, and policymakers with an interest in this topic are also welcome to join.

Find out more and enrol on the European Schoolnet Academy.

Safer Internet Centres are kindly asked to reshare the MOOC details through their own channels.

You may recall that, towards the end of last year, we issued a call for members for a new BIK Teacher Voice Panel to give input on ideas, initiatives and resources, so that we can better meet the needs of this stakeholder group. Panel members may also be called on periodically to provide representation at the BIK Advisory Board, the annual Safer Internet Forum (SIF), project focus groups and task forces (on topics such as youth consumer protection and age verification), and high-level consultations on online safety matters.

Last week, we organised a high-level focus group on the Digital Services Act (DSA) in schools on behalf of the EC as part of Safer Internet Day celebrations. The first BIK Teacher Voice panellists participated, giving excellent insights into the current opportunities and challenges in education. As we have more of these opportunities coming up, we are keen to build a wide and diverse teacher base to call upon. As such, Safer Internet Centres are kindly asked to reshare the call through their own channels.

Those interested in applying to join the panel should complete a short online form, including a brief motivation statement and a summary of relevant experience. Please note, to participate in this call, teachers and educators should:

• Be actively teaching in an EU country.
• Be actively teaching children and young people in pre-school, primary or secondary education (until the age of 18 years old).
• Have an awareness of online safety and media literacy issues.
• Be able to express ideas and opinions clearly in English in both written and spoken form.

Further information on the BIK Teacher Voice Panel is available here, where online applications can also be made.

The EU policy roundtable, hosted by the menABLE project, will bring together a diverse group of public and private stakeholders, including policymakers, representatives from civil society, academia, industries, education and young people to discuss priorities in tackling gender-based violence (GBV) online. The primary objective of the roundtable is to present and discuss the research findings of the menABLE Research Report – an empirical study on understanding and responding to gender-based violence online; and the Educational Toolbox concept - a plug-and-play game to prevent and combat gender-based violence online.

The roundtable will take place on Tuesday, 20 February 2024 in Brussels and online. For more information about the event, agenda, speakers’ bios and registration, please visit the menABLE website. 

The European Digital and Media Literacy Conference is taking place from Tuesday, 27 February 2024 to Friday, 1 March 2024 in Brussels. It puts the many faces of digital and media literacy in the European spotlight during the Belgian EU presidency. The conference is focused on showcasing and exchanging initiatives, tools, projects and practices that can be integrated into your own work or policy. Meet and connect with professionals from around the EU and from all policy levels. Let’s strengthen European cooperation and the future of Digital and Media Literacy! Attending the conference is free, but you need to apply to ensure a good European spread of participants. SIC representatives are warmly invited! 

More information is available from www.medialiteracymatters.eu. In case of questions, please contact Andy Demeulenaere (Coordinator at Mediawijs).

The next edition of the BIK bulletin will be published at the end of March with a focus on the global celebration of Safer Internet Day (SID) 2024, the latest developments with the Digital Services Act (DSA), and two new campaigns: AdWiseOnline - focusing on consumer and youth protection (see also above), and MediaSmartOnline - focusing on media literacy. 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 COB on Monday, 11 March 2024 (or sooner if possible) and all contributions or queries should be addressed to content@betterinternetforkids.eu.

As a reminder, we generally suggest that articles should be 300 - 600 words in length (but longer focus pieces are fine too), along with copyright-cleared images/photographs/logos if appropriate. The BIK team reserves the right to edit contributions for house style etc., but we try to keep this to a minimum. See the content contribution guidelines here.

• Safer Internet Day 2024: joining together for a better internet all around the world
• And suddenly the money is gone: expensive TikTok matches and cash gifts (SIC DE)
• Keeping children and young people safe in virtual worlds
• The Better Internet for Kids annual report 2023 is out
• Happy Safer Internet Day 2024!
• Protecting YOU(th) against manipulative marketing practices online – campaign launch!

Remember to submit your public portal blog articles to the BIK content mailbox; they count towards your SIC’s lump sum mechanism (LSM) criteria.

Awareness community of practice

• SID celebration in Greece (SIC GR)

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.

• It was great to see photos of Safer Internet Day celebrations across the network last week; thanks for sharing!

• 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):
  #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