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). Please register before the close of business on Thursday, 29 February 2024. 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 14:00 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 European Digital and Media Literacy Conference is taking place this 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. More information is available from www.medialiteracymatters.eu. In case of questions, please contact Andy Demeulenaere (Coordinator at Mediawijs).

Ahead of the upcoming EU elections, Google is organising an onsite event entitled Fighting misinformation online taking place in Brussels on Thursday, 21 March 2024 from 9:00 to 16:00 CET. The opportunity is for young people between 16-19 years of age. Please also note that a prior engagement with BIK Youth (through the BIK Youth panel or SIF YAG) is required to be selected for participation. The costs associated with participation at this event (travel and accommodation) for the young people, as well as their chaperone in case they are minors, will be covered by the organiser. More information and a sign-up form can be found here. In case of questions, please contact Sabrina or Chiara. 

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.

Submissions and queries should be directed to saferinternetday@betterinternetforkids.eu.

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.

• "Growing up in the digital world": successful Safer Internet symposium (SIC AT)
• New study about beauty ideals on the internet (SIC AT)
• The Digital Youth Panel: honesty, confidentiality and exchanging experiences among young people (SIC DK)
• Navigating safely: programme review 2023 (SIC PT)

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

• They stole her phone and shared photos on adult websites (SIC ES)

Helpline community of practice

• Helpline quarterly report - October-December 2023

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

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

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

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

• Tuesday, 18 June 2024, 16:00 CEST - Promoting well-being for improved learning outcomes
• Wednesday, 26 June 2024, 16:00 CEST - Well-being without overload: Integrating self-care in teaching practices

The latest helpline quarterly report, which covers the period January - March 2024, is now available from the BIK community (login first). We have also included an infographic which shows the headlines from the data.  
 
Thanks as ever for submitting all the statistics and sharing your observations and trends; we hope that you find the report useful. Please contact Karl if you have any questions or need any further information.

Some of the key developments in recent years revolve around artificial intelligence (AI), with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (XR) applications emerging in all sectors of society, from leisure and learning to business and health. Recognising these developments and the potential of the technology, in July 2023, the European Commission adopted a strategy on Web 4.0 and virtual worlds. The aim is to “steer the next technological transition and ensure an open, secure, trustworthy, fair and inclusive digital environment for EU citizens and business and public administrations". 

Within the framework of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) project, we are keen to support this developing area of work around virtual worlds with a discussion panel. Hence, a BIK discussion panel on virtual worlds will take place online on Tuesday, 18 June 2024, 14:00 – 16:00 CEST. All network members are invited to register using this link. Details on the agenda and speakers will follow soon.

In case of any queries, please contact Rima.

Many thanks to everyone who attended the early warning group meeting on Friday last week; you can find a summary of the information that was shared, along with a link to the recording of the meeting, in the BIK community (login first). The next meeting will take place on Monday, 22 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. If you need any further information then please contact Karl.

An online meeting with OnlyFans will take place on Friday, 14 June 2024 at 15:30 CEST. The meeting will be an opportunity to learn more about the platform and the safety and privacy features that they have in place; join using this link. For further information, please contact Karl. 

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

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

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

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

Find more about the AviaTor Forum here. 

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

We are delighted to open the call for youth participation in this year's Safer Internet Forum, taking place in Brussels, Belgium in November 2024.

This year is a little different; we are issuing three separate calls as follows (please ensure that you read and follow the detailed application process for the respective strand(s) you are interested in):

• Safer Internet Forum Youth Advisory Group (SIF YAG) - call now closed.
  
  
• BIK Youth Panel - open to youth associated with all Insafe network member countries (excluding the UK).
  Find further details, including information on the application process for the BIK YOUTH PANEL here.
  The deadline for applications is the close of business on Friday, 14 June 2024.
  Team contacts for further information are Sabrina and Eray.
  
  
• International Youth Panel (new this year) - open to youth associated with member countries of the SIC+ scheme and the UK.
  Find further details, including information on the application process for the INTERNATIONAL YOUTH PANEL here.
  The deadline for applications has been extended until the close of business on Friday, 14 June 2024.
  Team contacts for further information are Sabrina and Eray. 

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

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

To scope the next steps and further develop and rollout the campaign, with the most impactful reach and results for the target audiences, we seek your feedback!Please fill in the AdWiseOnline surveyby COB on Monday, 24 June 2024 and contact Inna for any questions/requests. 

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

Watch the recording of the webinar here, and explore previous webinars on the BIK Teacher corner webinar page.

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

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

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

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

• In the spotlight: Safer Internet Centre Cyprus
• International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression 2024
• Discerning between fact and fiction (SIC RO)

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

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

Helpline community of practice

• Helpline quarterly report: January - March 2024

• Early warning group - report from meeting on 7 June 2024

Hotline community of practice

• Online child safety forum discussion with the Finnish Hotline Nettivihje

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.

• Request for contacts for WPD platform (http://watchpeopledie.tv) from SIC AT.

• 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

Across the EU, children, young people, and their parents often turn to Safer Internet Centres (SICs) to report potential harms and complaints, and to access resources on internet safety. SICs also provide a valuable source of information and advice to other citizens, and the wider world, on online safety and well-being issues too. In this context, the Commission is looking to facilitate that SICs have a role to play in enhancing the safeguards that minors have online resulting from the Digital Services Act (DSA). On this basis, new tasks have been added to SICs’ grant agreements pertaining to: 

• The early warning group on online harms occurring in the EU.
• The helpline quarterly reporting.
• Surveys conducted by SICs.
• Youth panels organised by SICs.

All SICs receiving EU co-funding under the new grant agreement are invited to an information session held by colleagues at the DSA team at the Commission and HaDEA to better explain the tasks and what is expected. SIC colleagues will have the opportunity to ask questions and request further clarifications. 

The information session will take place on Friday, 21 June from 11:00 to 12:15 CEST; join via this link. 

If you have questions, please contact Karl or Rima. 

We invite Safer Internet Centre colleagues to share the following information with their youth contacts:

Are you between 15 and 29 years old? If so, the European Commission are keen to hear your views on certain aspects of the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027.

The strategy aims to encourage young people to participate in democratic life, support social and civic engagement, and ensure that all young people have the resources they need to play an active part in society.

Your answers will be included in the next EU Youth Report on the progress of the strategy during the years 2022-2024. They will complement the results of other consultations to provide a better picture of young people’s views and how to give young people a stronger voice in EU policymaking.

Please share your feedback via the online survey by Sunday, 30 June 2024: EUSurvey - Survey (europa.eu). The survey is available in all EU languages.

In case of further questions, please contact EAC-YOUTH@ec.europa.eu.

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

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

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

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

• THIS WEEK:Tuesday, 18 June 2024, 16:00 CEST - Promoting well-being for improved learning outcomes
• Wednesday, 26 June 2024, 16:00 CEST - Well-being without overload: Integrating self-care in teaching practices

The latest helpline quarterly report, which covers the period January - March 2024, is now available from the BIK community (login first). We have also included an infographic which shows the headlines from the data.  
 
Thanks as ever for submitting all the statistics and sharing your observations and trends; we hope that you find the report useful. Please contact Karl if you have any questions or need any further information.

Many thanks to those people who joined the recent online meeting with OnlyFans. You can find a report from the meeting in the BIK community (login first). If you need any further information, please contact Karl. 

Some of the key developments in recent years revolve around artificial intelligence (AI), with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (XR) applications emerging in all sectors of society, from leisure and learning to business and health. Recognising these developments and the potential of the technology, in July 2023, the European Commission adopted a strategy on Web 4.0 and virtual worlds. The aim is to “steer the next technological transition and ensure an open, secure, trustworthy, fair and inclusive digital environment for EU citizens and business and public administrations". 

Within the framework of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) project, we are keen to support this developing area of work around virtual worlds with a discussion panel. Hence, a BIK discussion panel on virtual worlds will take place online tomorrow - Tuesday, 18 June 2024, 14:00 – 16:00 CEST. All network members are invited to register using this link, where the agenda can also be found.

In case of any queries, please contact Rima.

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

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

The next online meeting for youth coordinators will take place on Friday, 21 June 2024 at 11:00 CEST. During this meeting, Tom Pinfield from the UK SIC, as well as the members of their Youth Advisory Board, will present a new resource titled Reliability online. Access the meeting using this link; for further information, please contact Eray.

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

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

Find more about the AviaTor Forum here. 

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

Many thanks to everyone who attended the recent early warning group meeting ; you can find a summary of the information that was shared, along with a link to the recording of the meeting, in the BIK community (login first). The next meeting will take place on Monday, 22 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. If you need any further information, please contact Karl.

The annual European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) is taking place this week, from 17-19 June2024, in Vilnius (Lithuania) and online under the theme of Balancing innovation and regulation. An Insafe delegation will be present on-site to host a workshop session on Protecting vulnerable groups online from harmful content – new (technical) approaches. The session will take place on Tuesday, 18 June 2024 at 12:15-13:15 EEST(11:15-12:15 CEST). Network members are warmly invited to join the session and register for the event. Registration is mandatory also for remote participation. 

In case of any questions, please contact Sabrina.  

As part of BIK youth consultation activities, we are looking for 5-10 young people to share their views on manipulative digital marketing practices that will feed into campaign materials for the full rollout of the AdWiseOnline campaign.    
 
The consultation is expected to cover:  

• Understanding what young people already know, and any gaps in knowledge.
• Analysing existing resources and assessing their usefulness.
• Gathering feedback on the preferred format of additional resources to better understand the topic.
• Exploring expectations regarding the support they would want to receive from their parents or teachers on this topic. 

We would like to meet with the group once during the summer (in the period between 1-16 August 2024) to introduce the initiative, explain what is expected, and gather immediate ideas on the above points. Following this initial meeting, young people (who are interested and available to continue collaboration) may be invited to contribute further during the August to October timeframe. This could include giving interviews, participating in podcasts, narrating videos, validating content, and co-designing resources. 
 
Thank you for issuing the call for interest at your national level; please contact Inna and Chiara by close of business on Friday, 19 July 2024, with any youth nominations.

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

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

To scope the next steps and further develop and rollout the campaign, with the most impactful reach and results for the target audiences, we seek your feedback!Please fill in the AdWiseOnline surveyby COB on Monday, 24 June 2024 and contact Inna for any questions/requests. 

In addition to the call for SIF Youth Advisory Group members, the calls for interest for the BIK Youth Panel and International Youth Panel 2024 have now closed. Thank you to all colleagues who have contacted us. If you have any additional questions or need more information on the next steps, please contact Sabrina. 

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

Watch the recording of the webinar here, and explore previous webinars on the BIK Teacher corner webinar page.

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

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

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

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

• GILM's multistakeholder model for media literacy in Portugal: initiatives in public debate (SIC PT)
• GILM's multistakeholder model for media literacy in Portugal: mission and path (SIC PT)
• Youth panel unravels the mysteries of artificial intelligence (AI) (BIK Youth)
• Results of a Greek national survey reveals concerning data regarding online violence (SIC GR)

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

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

Helpline community of practice

• OnlyFans - online meeting June 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.

• Experiences in making video games about cyberbullying/online safety topics (SIC HR)

• 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

Thanks to all SIC colleagues who attended the information session on DSA support tasks last Friday. During the session, the DSA team at the Commission and HaDEA explained the tasks to support the DSA and what is expected under the new grant agreements. Notes and slides from the session will be shared in the next Weekly Update.

The Netherlands ran a pilot on the implementation of the DSA and the role of a Safer Internet Centre (mainly focusing on the helpline, but also relevant for the hotline). Part of this pilot is described in a White Paper titled Advice on setting up an accessible reporting facility (available in the BIK community in EN; login first). Colleagues from SIC NL have given permission to share this with the network as a good practice example showing how the government, public sector and SIC can collaborate.

For further information, please contact Robbert at Offlimits.

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

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

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

In addition, a webinar, organised by the European Toolkit for Schools, will take place this week on Wednesday, 26 June 2024 at 16:00 CEST - Well-being without overload: Integrating self-care in teaching practices.

A final reminder that we invite Safer Internet Centre colleagues to share the following information with their youth contacts:

Are you between 15 and 29 years old? If so, the European Commission are keen to hear your views on certain aspects of the EU Youth Strategy 2019-2027.

The strategy aims to encourage young people to participate in democratic life, support social and civic engagement, and ensure that all young people have the resources they need to play an active part in society.

Your answers will be included in the next EU Youth Report on the progress of the strategy during the years 2022-2024. They will complement the results of other consultations to provide a better picture of young people’s views and how to give young people a stronger voice in EU policymaking.

Please share your feedback via the online survey by Sunday, 30 June 2024. The survey is available in all EU languages.

In case of further questions, please contact EAC-YOUTH@ec.europa.eu.

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

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

At this stage, EUN is launching a call for expressions of interest from expert organisations to organise consultations with children and young people younger than 12 years of age and from various vulnerable backgrounds. 

Please help us promote the open call by sharing it with any relevant expert organisations in your network. The open call is available here. 

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

Thanks to those who participated in the virtual worlds session last week. We are currently preparing some notes, and this will also be the focus topic for the June 2024 edition of the BIK bulletin, being published this Friday, 28 June 2024. Read the BIK bulletin here or subscribe to receive it directly to your mailbox.

Many thanks to those people who attended the meeting on accessibility last week. You can find a report from the meeting along with the slides used and a link to a recording in the BIK community (login first). For any further information please contact Karl.

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

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

Learn more about the AviaTor Forum here. 

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

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Monday, 22 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. If you need any further information, please contact Karl.

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

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

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

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

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

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

To scope the next steps and further develop and rollout the campaign, with the most impactful reach and results for the target audiences, we seek your feedback!Please fill in the AdWiseOnline surveyby COB today - Monday, 24 June 2024 and contact Inna for any questions/requests. 

As part of BIK youth consultation activities, we are looking for 5-10 young people to share their views on manipulative digital marketing practices that will feed into campaign materials for the full rollout of the AdWiseOnline campaign.    
 
The consultation is expected to cover:  

• Understanding what young people already know, and any gaps in knowledge.
• Analysing existing resources and assessing their usefulness.
• Gathering feedback on the preferred format of additional resources to better understand the topic.
• Exploring expectations regarding the support they would want to receive from their parents or teachers on this topic. 

We would like to meet with the group once during the summer (in the period between 1-16 August 2024) to introduce the initiative, explain what is expected, and gather immediate ideas on the above points. Following this initial meeting, young people (who are interested and available to continue collaboration) may be invited to contribute further during the August to October timeframe. This could include giving interviews, participating in podcasts, narrating videos, validating content, and co-designing resources. 
 
Thank you for issuing the call for interest at your national level; please contact Inna and Chiara by close of business on Friday, 19 July 2024, with any youth nominations.

• Romanian Safer Internet Centre helpline (SIC RO)
• Empowering youth online: the Ora de Net initiative (SIC RO)
• What parents should know about VR gaming (SIC DE)
• Protecting vulnerable groups online from harmful content – new (technical) approaches: Insafe delegation participates in EuroDIG 2024 (Insafe EuroDIG delegation)
• Age limit on social media platforms (SIC RO)

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

• This week, SIC IE has uploaded various case studies on topics such as sextortion, porn addiction, and pop-up images.

Awareness community of practice

• Blackout challenge/choking challenge on TikTok (SIC AT)
• "watchpeopledie" and other horrible sites (SIC AT)
• Think before you click: A campaign on peer violence and hate speech online (SIC SI)

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

As you know, we are currently redeveloping the BIK platform, for launch in the autumn season (the exact date is yet to be confirmed). In preparation, we are undertaking some content cleaning and migration tasks over the summer, and for some of these, we will need input from SIC colleagues.

The first task is to review SIC resource uploads to identify resources that should be migrated and those that are no longer current. To kick off this process, we will contact SIC Coordinators and content contacts over the coming days. Many thanks in advance for your support.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to all SIC colleagues who attended the recent information session on DSA support tasks. Notes and slides from the session are now available in the BIK community (login first).

The Netherlands ran a pilot on the implementation of the DSA and the role of a Safer Internet Centre (mainly focusing on the helpline, but also relevant for the hotline). Part of this pilot is described in a White Paper titled Advice on setting up an accessible reporting facility (available in the BIK community in EN; login first). Colleagues from SIC NL have given permission to share this with the network as a good practice example showing how the government, public sector and SIC can collaborate.

For further information, please contact Robbert at Offlimits.

Assessment platform submissions are now due for helplines and hotlines reporting on the second quarter of 2024 (April-June 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 (March 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 July 2024. For further information, please contact Karl (helplines) or Abby (hotlines).

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

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

At this stage, EUN is launching a call for expressions of interest from expert organisations to organise consultations with children and young people younger than 12 years of age and from various vulnerable backgrounds. 

Please help us promote the open call by sharing it with any relevant expert organisations in your network. The open call is available here. 

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

An online meeting with WebGroup (which owns and operates the adult site XVideos) will take place on Wednesday, 3 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. The meeting will be an opportunity to hear more about their safety and privacy tools, reporting routes, and how to flag problematic content. Join the meeting using this link. For further information, please contact Karl. 

There will be an online meeting with Yubo on Wednesday, 17 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. This will provide an opportunity to hear about the latest developments on the platform including safety and privacy tools. Yubo is expanding into a number of EU countries and is keen to work closely with Insafe helplines; use this link to join the meeting. For further information, please contact Karl.

Thanks to those who participated in the recent virtual worlds panel discussion session; please see the follow-up feature in the June 2024 edition of the BIK bulletin. You can read past editions of the BIK bulletin here or subscribe to receive it directly in your mailbox.

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Monday, 22 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. If you need any further information, please contact Karl.

Many thanks to those people who attended the recent meeting on accessibility. You can find a report from the meeting along with the slides used and a link to a recording in the BIK community (login first). For any further information, please contact Karl.

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

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

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

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

As part of BIK youth consultation activities, we are looking for 5-10 young people to share their views on manipulative digital marketing practices that will feed into campaign materials for the full rollout of the AdWiseOnline campaign.    
 
The consultation is expected to cover:  

• Understanding what young people already know, and any gaps in knowledge.
• Analysing existing resources and assessing their usefulness.
• Gathering feedback on the preferred format of additional resources to better understand the topic.
• Exploring expectations regarding the support they would want to receive from their parents or teachers on this topic. 

We would like to meet with the group once during the summer (in the period between 1-16 August 2024) to introduce the initiative, explain what is expected, and gather immediate ideas on the above points. Following this initial meeting, young people (who are interested and available to continue collaboration) may be invited to contribute further during the August to October timeframe. This could include giving interviews, participating in podcasts, narrating videos, validating content, and co-designing resources. 
 
Thank you for issuing the call for interest at your national level; please contact Inna and Chiara by close of business on Friday, 19 July 2024, with any youth nominations.

Please note that although we have received great interest from youth so far (aged 17-19), we are especially keen to involve some younger youth voices in this consultation work. Any SIC support in reaching this target group would be much appreciated.

• Cyberbullying in the digital age (SIC RO)
• Entrepreneurial challenge for young people on a safe online world in Slovenia (SIC SI)
• How can parents and caregivers protect their children from the beauty craze on the internet? (SIC AT)
• Virtual worlds: Q&A session with Tünde Levy, European Commission
• Latest helpline trends: Quarter 1, 2024
• INHOPE EC-funded hotline activity: overview of Quarter 1, 2024

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

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

Helpline case studies

• A 10-year-old girl's image account was created to make fun of her (SIC ES)

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

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

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

Many thanks in advance for your support.

All SIC Coordinators and content contacts have now been contacted regarding the review of SIC resource uploads to identify resources that should be migrated and those that are no longer current. Please note that the deadline for responses is the close of business on Friday, 26 July 2024.

In preparation for the launch of the new platform, we will soon be suspending the upload of SIC articles on the existing platform. In brief:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to all SIC colleagues who attended the recent information session on DSA support tasks. Notes and slides from the session are now available in the BIK community (login first).

Assessment platform submissions are now due for helplines and hotlines reporting on the second quarter of 2024 (April-June 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 (March 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 July 2024. For further information, please contact Karl (helplines) or Abby (hotlines).

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

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

At this stage, EUN is launching a call for expressions of interest from expert organisations to organise consultations with children and young people younger than 12 years of age and from various vulnerable backgrounds. 

Please help us promote the open call by sharing it with any relevant expert organisations in your network. The open call is available here. 

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

Many thanks to those who attended the recent online meeting with WebGroup. You can find a report from the meeting and a link to the recording in the BIK community (login first). For further information, please contact Karl. 

There will be an online meeting with Yubo on Wednesday, 17 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. This will provide an opportunity to hear about the latest developments on the platform including safety and privacy tools. Yubo is expanding into a number of EU countries and is keen to work closely with Insafe helplines; use this link to join the meeting. For further information, please contact Karl.

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Monday, 22 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. For further information, please contact Karl.

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

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

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

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

The Lithuania Safer Internet Centre is organising an international summer camp for youth council delegates and chaperones from 21-24 August 2024: all Safer Internet Centre youth participants and colleagues are welcome to join.

The camp will be hosted on a fully equipped campsite near the Lithuanian seaside and will focus on excessive digital technology use. The participants, with the help of experienced trainers, will try to find solutions on how to talk about this growing problem and how to improve their habits. Fun and games are definitely a part of the process, and the participants will surely take advantage of being a few hundred meters away from the beach.  

Safer Internet Centre Lithuania is inviting all Safer Internet Centre youth participants and colleagues to a summer camp.

The participation fee of 290 EUR covers the cost of food and accommodation for the camp, but participants should arrange their journey to the campsite independently.

A flyer with more information is available here; registration is open until Friday, 19 July 2024. If you have any further questions, please contact Liudas Mikalkevicius.  

As part of BIK youth consultation activities, we are looking for 5-10 young people to share their views on manipulative digital marketing practices that will feed into campaign materials for the full rollout of the AdWiseOnline campaign.    
 
The consultation is expected to cover:  

• Understanding what young people already know, and any gaps in knowledge.
• Analysing existing resources and assessing their usefulness.
• Gathering feedback on the preferred format of additional resources to better understand the topic.
• Exploring expectations regarding the support they would want to receive from their parents or teachers on this topic. 

We would like to meet with the group once during the summer (in the period between 1-16 August 2024) to introduce the initiative, explain what is expected, and gather immediate ideas on the above points. Following this initial meeting, young people (who are interested and available to continue collaboration) may be invited to contribute further during the August to October timeframe. This could include giving interviews, participating in podcasts, narrating videos, validating content, and co-designing resources. 
 
Thank you for issuing the call for interest at your national level; please contact Inna and Chiara by close of business on Friday, 19 July 2024, with any youth nominations.

Please note that although we have received great interest from youth (aged 17-19) so far, we are especially keen to involve some younger youth voices in this consultation work. Any SIC support in reaching this target group would be much appreciated.

• Nurturing healthy family bonds through games (SIC RO)

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

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

Awareness community of practice

• AI in education research (SIC GR)
• WebGroup online meeting in July 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

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

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

Many thanks in advance for your support.

All SIC Coordinators and content contacts have now been contacted regarding the review of SIC resource uploads to identify resources that should be migrated and those that are no longer current. Please note that the deadline for responses is the close of business on Friday, 26 July 2024.

In preparation for the launch of the new platform, we will soon be suspending the upload of SIC articles on the existing platform. In brief:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At this stage, EUN is launching a call for expressions of interest from expert organisations to organise consultations with children and young people younger than 12 years of age and from various vulnerable backgrounds. 

Please help us promote the open call by sharing it with any relevant expert organisations in your network. The open call is available here. 

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

There will be an online meeting with Yubo on Wednesday, 17 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. This will provide an opportunity to hear about the latest developments on the platform including safety and privacy tools. Yubo is expanding into a number of EU countries and is keen to work closely with Insafe helplines; use this link to join the meeting. For further information, please contact Karl.

The next meeting of the helpline early warning group will take place on Monday, 22 July 2024 at 11:00 CEST. For further information, please contact Karl.

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

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

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

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

As part of BIK youth consultation activities, we are looking for 5-10 young people to share their views on manipulative digital marketing practices that will feed into campaign materials for the full rollout of the AdWiseOnline campaign.    
 
The consultation is expected to cover:  

• Understanding what young people already know, and any gaps in knowledge.
• Analysing existing resources and assessing their usefulness.
• Gathering feedback on the preferred format of additional resources to better understand the topic.
• Exploring expectations regarding the support they would want to receive from their parents or teachers on this topic. 

We would like to meet with the group once during the summer (in the period between 1-16 August 2024) to introduce the initiative, explain what is expected, and gather immediate ideas on the above points. Following this initial meeting, young people (who are interested and available to continue collaboration) may be invited to contribute further during the August to October timeframe. This could include giving interviews, participating in podcasts, narrating videos, validating content, and co-designing resources. 
 
Thank you for issuing the call for interest at your national level; please contact Inna and Chiara by close of business on Friday, 19 July 2024, with any youth nominations.

Please note that although we have received great interest from youth (aged 17-19) so far, we are especially keen to involve some younger youth voices in this consultation work. Any SIC support in reaching this target group would be much appreciated.

The Lithuania Safer Internet Centre is organising an international summer camp for youth council delegates and chaperones from 21-24 August 2024: all Safer Internet Centre youth participants and colleagues are welcome to join.

The camp will be hosted on a fully equipped campsite near the Lithuanian seaside and will focus on excessive digital technology use. The participants, with the help of experienced trainers, will try to find solutions on how to talk about this growing problem and how to improve their habits. Fun and games are definitely a part of the process, and the participants will surely take advantage of being a few hundred meters away from the beach.  

Safer Internet Centre Lithuania is inviting all Safer Internet Centre youth participants and colleagues to a summer camp.

The participation fee of 290 EUR covers the cost of food and accommodation for the camp, but participants should arrange their journey to the campsite independently.

A flyer with more information is available here; registration is open until Friday, 19 July 2024. If you have any further questions, please contact Liudas Mikalkevicius.  

• Ensuring digital well-being for adolescents (SIC RO)
• Romanian Safer Internet Centre hotline (SIC RO)

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

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

Awareness community of practice

• Safer internet use issues among Slovenian teenagers in school year 2023/24 (SIC SI)

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.

• "Danube Camp" gathers young people from Romania, Bulgaria and Austria to discuss DSA-related questions and media rules (SIC AT)
• Turning Google Family link off (SIC HR)
• First BIK+ strategy evaluation: Open call for expressions of interest from expert organisations

• 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