Better Internet for Kids

klicksafe aims to promote people's online competence and to support them with a wide range of services to help them use the internet competently and critically. On the website, users can find a wealth of up-to-date information, practical tips, and teaching materials on digital services and related topics. The target groups are teachers, educators, parents, children, young people and multipliers.

The key platform, www.klicksafe.de, offers access to the entire portfolio of materials. klicksafe materials have been established to promote media literacy. To date, klicksafe has sent more than 13 million klicksafe print materials to organisations and individuals throughout Germany.

In 2005, a successful campaign was launched and raised awareness of the issue of internet safety with the commercial ‘Where is Klaus’. The award-winning advert was translated into several languages and broadcast throughout Europe. In 2025, klicksafe celebrated 25 years of Klaus with a re-publication of the clip and short videos of young people commenting on the different aspects of the original video.

Contacts and opening hours:

• The awareness centre can be contacted from Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 17:00 by telephone (+496215202271), via the contact form on the klicksafe website, and by email. It is also possible to contact the awareness centre via its social media channels (direct messages) and WhatsApp.

Nummer gegen Kummer e.V. (NgK) is the umbrella organization of Germany’s largest toll-free and anonymous counselling service for children, adolescents, parents and other caregivers. It has more than 45 years of experience as a general helpline.

The helpline is open to all topics, including online safety issues, and offers a safe place to talk, seek advice, find comfort, or simply have someone listen. NgK's trained volunteer counsellors support individuals in finding their own solutions (by helping them to help themselves). If needed, counsellors can provide information about specialized or professional help and recommend relevant (online) sources of information enabling young people or parents to educate themselves further.

Contacts:

• Young people can call the Child Helpline at 116111 (peer-to-peer counselling on Saturdays) or contact the online counselling services (chat, email) via the website.
• The parents’ Helpline can be reached by calling 0800 111 0 550.
• The Helpline Ukraine for Ukrainian families in Germany can be reached by calling 0800 – 500 225 0.

Opening hours:

• Child Helpline: Monday to Saturday from 14:00 to 20:00.
• Parents’ Helpline: Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 17:00, with additional hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays until 19:00.
• Helpline Ukraine: Monday to Friday from 14:00 to 17:00

Online-counselling: 

• Chat: Monday to Thursday from 14:00 to 18:00.
• Mail: 24/7.

The German Safer Internet Centre (SIC) has two national alert platforms for reporting of illegal content on the internet, particularly in respect of child pornography, racism and xenophobia: IBSDE, operated by the hotlines of eco and FSM as independent partners, and jugendschutz.net.

As a consortium set up by the partners eco and FSM, IBSDE is ‘industry driven' and has a self-regulatory approach. eco is the Internet Service Providers Association in Germany and represents organisations of the internet industry, as well as all enterprises that make commercial use of the internet. FSM is the German non-profit association for voluntary self-regulation in online and mobile media and was founded by numerous media associations and media enterprises. Its members are media and telecommunications organisations, as well as companies who offer their products and services online.

jugendschutz.net serves as the joint competence center of the federal government, the states and state media authorities for the protection of children and young people on the internet. jugendschutz.net looks closely at dangers and risks in internet services specifically popular among young people. The centre works to ensure that violations of youth protection laws are removed and urges providers and operators to design their content in a way that allows children and young people to use the internet free of troubles. The German youth ministries founded jugendschutz.net in 1997. The tasks were laid down in the Interstate Treaty on the Protection of Minors (JMStV) in 2003. Since then jugendschutz.net has been organizationally linked to the Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media (KJM). In 2021, the Federal Government also assigned jugendschutz.net a statutory mandate in the Protection of Young Persons Act (JuSchG).

The work of jugendschutz.net is funded by the Supreme Youth Protection Authorities of the federal states, the state media authorities and the Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth and the European Union. jugendschutz.net runs a hotline accepting reports about violations of youth media protection laws.

The hotline partners are collaborating closely, for example by regular meetings, exchange of expertise and participation in joint projects.

Opening hours:

• Online content can be reported to the hotlines at any time via the online report forms. Reports are processed from Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays).

The klicksafe youth panel consists of a group of students concerned with digital trends and relevant issues of the online world. As media scouts, they help younger students navigate through the digital universe via talks on Facebook, WhatsApp, and more. Since January 2009, klicksafe has coordinated a cooperative youth panel with representatives from different secondary schools. klicksafe has developed a cyberbullying first aid app, in collaboration with its youth panel, that has won international awards and been translated into six languages.

How can you get involved?

More information on the youth panel is available on the klicksafe website.

The SIC works with young people and school classes on specific topics and projects, and delivers workshops at youth fairs. The work of the youth panel is advertised there. As part of this work, committed young people are included in the youth panel.