Deadline: 2-Sep-25
The European Commission (EC) is seeking proposals to support national Safer Internet Centres (SICs), which may be composed of one or more NGOs, government bodies/agencies, and/or private sector organisations.
Objective
- SICs provide online safety information, educational resources, public awareness tools and counselling and reporting services (through dedicated helplines and hotlines) for children, young people, educators and carers.
- The activities performed by the SICs help minors tackle online risks and become media literate, resilient, digital citizens.
- The helpline work strand provides assistance and support to children, young people and their careers. The hotline work strand allows the public to anonymously report suspected online child sexual abuse material (CSAM) for assessment and takedown.
- The SICs also address the needs of children with specific or special needs, including those with disabilities and those hailing from disadvantaged and vulnerable backgrounds, to ensure no child is left behind.
- This call will continue to support the implementation of the Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) strategy, and the broader EU legal framework for child online protection and relevant EC priorities, such as action plan against cyberbullying, age verification and age assurance, as well as monitoring and support to mental health and well-being of children (e.g. related to addictive design and screen time). Considering the role of the Commission as an enforcement body for the Digital Services Act (DSA), where applicable, the SICs will continue to strategically assist the Commission in this role, in particular through data collection in the EU member states.
Scope
- The funding will ensure the continuation of the well-established European network of national SICs, by enabling the awarded consortia to provide at least:
- A Centre for Raising Awareness among children, parents/carers, teachers and educators as well as other relevant professionals working with children about online opportunities and risks for the under 18s. The focus will be to identify and address:
- online opportunities by fostering digital literacy to help children and youth to develop their digital skills and competences and to actively participate by giving them a say in the digital environment;
- specific and general known risks (e.g. harmful and illegal content; cyberbullying; age-inappropriate content; sexual extortion; addictive design and manipulation; disinformation; hate speech);
- specific and general emerging opportunities and risks (e.g. new apps; games; online challenges and trends; AI and generative AI, including AI generated pornographic and violent content; virtual, augmented and extended reality; the internet of things and other technological changes raising new social and ethical challenges that impact children);
- issues such as mental and physical health risks related to the use of technologies (e.g. self-harm; cyberbullying; risky online challenges; promotion of eating disorders; screen addiction; social isolation; exposure to age-inappropriate content online, including pornographic and violent content, and sexual extortion);
- risks facing children as young consumers (e.g. nudges to spend money; aggressive and/or manipulative marketing strategies; loot boxes).
- A Centre for Raising Awareness among children, parents/carers, teachers and educators as well as other relevant professionals working with children about online opportunities and risks for the under 18s. The focus will be to identify and address:
- More specifically the awareness centre will:
- Provide trustworthy resources for and carry out awareness campaigns targeting children, parents, carers and teachers, educators and other relevant contacts working with children (e.g. sports coaches, club leaders). The resources proposed should represent a balanced mix of different public friendly and accessible online and offline resources, such as, but not limited to: teaching resources, apps, booklets and leaflets, videos, games, blogs, vlogs, posters, etc. The resources should address children’s rights, and a range of ages and topics.
- Promote positive online experiences, for example through stimulating uptake of games and other engaging media to support awareness raising, and encouraging children to define their needs for better protection and empowerment in the digital transformation.
- Engage directly with children from different demographic groups, including the organisation of regular youth participation activities, allowing them to express their views and pool their knowledge and experience of using online technologies.
- Promote the distribution of relevant online training modules (MOOCs) for teachers.
- Organise training and awareness raising activities for parents.
- Evaluate the impact of the awareness campaigns on the target groups and provide qualitative and quantitative feedback at European level on a regular basis as defined by the EU Better Internet for Kids (BIK) platform.
- A HELPLINE to give advice and support to parents and children on issues related to children’s use of digital technologies and services; to provide assistance on mental health issues relating to the exposure to age-inappropriate content online, including pornographic and violent content; to strengthen support to victims of cyberbullying, close cooperation with the national Child Helpline 116111 service is required.
- More specifically the helpline will:
- Offer one-to-one conversations via telephone, email and online chat services, with trained helpers to give advice and support to children and parents on online related issues; solutions to offer a ‘24 hours a day/7 days a week’ support should be explored, including using artificial intelligence together with human moderation when appropriate;
- Develop/launch an ambitious national communication strategy including key performance indicators, both in terms of reach and impact to raise the visibility of the helpline services;
- Draw up or update the operating guidelines in compliance with national law, including data protection rules;
- Provide qualitative and quantitative feedback at European level on a regular basis on the main online risks and new trends as defined by the EU Better Internet for Kids (BIK) platform.
- A HOTLINE for tackling the spread of online CSAM (i.e., receiving, analysing, and processing reports of such material).
- The specific tasks for the hotline include the following:
- Establish or continue to operate a hotline to receive information from the public relating to potential CSAM (reports), and if deemed appropriate racism and xenophobia;
- Draw up or update the hotline manual of procedures in cooperation with law enforcement authorities and in accordance with best practice guidelines;
- Cooperate with the INHOPE network of hotlines and make full use of and connect to the technical infrastructure ICCAM;
- Undertake a preliminary assessment of the legality of the content reported and trace its origin, and forward the report to the body for action (Internet Service Provider, law enforcement agency or corresponding hotline) including systematic notice to the host provider of content assessed as CSAM and monitoring of the take-down; forward suspicions of illegal content to certain stakeholders (Internet Service Provider, law enforcement agency or corresponding hotline) for further assessment;
- Ensure compatibility with data formats of the technical infrastructure ICCAM and provide statistics required for measuring the impact and effectiveness of the network of hotlines (e.g. time to removal of the illegal content);
- Develop/update and launch an ambitious national communication strategy including key performance indicators, both in terms of reach and impact to raise the visibility of the hotline services.
- The specific tasks for the hotline include the following:
Funding Information
- The estimated available call budget is EUR 47 000 000.
- Network of Safer Internet Centres (SICs): EUR 42 000 000
Outcomes and Deliverables
- The following outcomes are expected:
- support the monitoring of the impact of the digital transformation on children’s well-being in cooperation with the BIK platform;
- support the implementation of relevant EU strategies, policy initiatives and legislation in particular the DSA;
- promote the distribution of relevant online training modules (MOOCs) for teachers;
- expand the role of BIK Youth Ambassadors and BIK Youth Panels to support peer-to-peer activities at national, regional and local level;
- provide trustworthy resources for and carry out campaigns targeting children, parents, carers and teachers, educators and other relevant contacts working with children (e.g. sports coaches, club leaders).
- act as a one-stop-shop for reliable and age-appropriate information;
- provide digital literacy training in formal and informal education settings (e.g., youth participation activities, workshops, classroom visits, competitions, peer to-peer activities);
- support parents, carers, teachers, educators and other professionals working with children to better understand the risks and opportunities of children accessing digital content and services (e.g., information sessions, train the trainers programmes, and online and offline material);
- identify and foster synergies and complementarities with other EU-funded projects under similar or different funding programmes (such as EDMO or other projects dealing with activities relevant to the SICs), and collaborate on similar topics to showcase added-value and achieve greater impact;
- For each of the three strands of activities the proposals selected for funding will be required to demonstrate that they have achieved the following results by the end of the Action:
- For the awareness centre
- A dissemination and communication plan for the awareness activities including key performance indicators, both in terms of reach and impact for each of the proposed activities and resources targeting children, parents and teachers and other professionals working with children.
- On a regular basis, provide qualitative and quantitative feedback at European level as defined by the EU Better Internet for Kids platform.
- An evaluation of the impact of the awareness campaigns on the target groups and report on the key performance indicators.
- A report on the partnerships established/maintained and on the exchange of information with key players (e.g. government agencies, private sector, user organisations, education stakeholders) at national level.
- For the helpline
- A national communication and dissemination strategy including key performance indicators, both in terms of reach and impact to raise the visibility of the helpline services.
- A helpline operating guideline in compliance with national law, including data protection rules.
- On a regular basis, provide qualitative and quantitative feedback at European level as defined by the EU Better Internet for Kids (BIK) platform.
- An evaluation of the impact of the national communication and dissemination strategy and report on the key performance indicators of the helpline.
- For the hotline
- A national communication and dissemination strategy including key performance indicators, both in terms of reach and impact to raise the visibility of the hotline services.
- An evaluation of the impact of the national communication and dissemination strategy and report on the key performance indicators of the hotline.
- A hotline manual of procedures in cooperation with law enforcement authorities and in accordance with best practice guidelines.
- Regular and timely processing of reports received. Where legally possible, the hotline must make a preliminary assessment of the legality of the content reported, trace its origin, and forward the report to the appropriate body for action (Internet Service Provider, the law enforcement agency or corresponding hotline).
- For the awareness centre
Eligibility Criteria
- In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
- non-EU countries:
- listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme
- Specific cases and definitions
- Natural persons — Natural persons are not eligible (with the exception of self-employed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).
- International organisations — International organisations are NOT eligible, unless they are international organisations of European Interest w
- Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.
For more information, visit EC.