The latest figures on child poverty in Europe paint a stark picture. Whilst the statistics may be new, the reality they reveal is all too familiar: nearly one in four children in the European Union (24.3 %) still grows up at risk of poverty or social exclusion. In 2025, that meant 19.2 million children whose rights, well-being and future opportunities remain at risk, according to figures in the newly published mid-term review of the European Child Guarantee.

The mid-term review marks five years since the adoption of the European Child Guarantee, the landmark 2021 Council Recommendation, which recommends that every Member State ensure that children in need have free and effective access to early childhood education and care, education, school meals, healthcare, healthy nutrition, and adequate housing. The review highlights the progress made. Across Europe, the Child Guarantee has driven important reforms, expanded access to essential services, and strengthened children’s participation in the consultation phase.

These examples demonstrate that progress is possible when political commitment is matched with investment.

Yet, five years on, Europe remains far from achieving its ambitions.

The number of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion has barely changed since 2019. More concerningly, while the overall poverty rate in the EU fell to 20.9% in 2025, the rate among children increased. Since 2019, around 3.5 million people have been lifted out of poverty or social exclusion across the European Union, but children have not benefited equally from that progress.

Poverty in Europe is increasingly becoming a childhood issue. In six Member States (Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland and Sweden), there are more children at risk of poverty or social exclusion today than they were in 2019.

This trend is neither inevitable nor acceptable.

Income support remains inadequate in many countries. While social transfers reduce child monetary poverty by an average of 42%, performance varies dramatically across the European Union, ranging from over 60% in Finland to just 18% in Romania. In several Member States, take-up of social or child benefits remains worryingly low, e.g. Spain. Even where support exists, many families face barriers such as complex procedures, stigma or a lack of information, preventing them from accessing the help to which they are entitled.

At the same time, inequalities are reinforced through unequal access to essential services:

• Only 23.6% of children under three who are at risk of poverty attend early childhood education and care, compared to 43.9% of children not at risk of poverty. In most Member States, this gap continues to widen.
• By age 15, nearly one in three children (28.8%) from disadvantaged backgrounds underachieve in reading, maths and science, compared with fewer than one in twenty (4.7%) among their more advantaged peers.
• Children at risk of poverty are fourteen times more likely to go without a daily meal containing meat, fish or an equivalent source of protein, while 42.6% live in overcrowded housing.

Only three countries, Ireland, Cyprus and Sweden, have achieved their national child poverty reduction targets, and those targets were relatively modest to begin with. Even if every Member State were to meet its national target in full, the EU would still fall short of its commitment to lift 5 million children out of poverty by 2030, as national targets collectively amount to only 2.9 million children.

The ambition gap is clear.

Yet, the review also demonstrates what could be achieved. With accelerated reforms and stronger implementation, up to 14 million children could be lifted out of poverty. The social and economic case for action is overwhelming: every euro invested in children’s education can return up to seven euros over time.[1]

Few investments offer Europe greater benefits.

In a world marked by economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability and competing priorities, children cannot be pushed further down the political agenda. Child poverty is not simply a social challenge; it is a question of rights, equality and the kind of society Europe wants to build.

Growing up in poverty affects children’s health, education, well-being and future life chances. The consequences can last a lifetime. Eradicating child poverty therefore means more than improving living conditions today; it means safeguarding children’s rights and strengthening Europe’s future.

Eurochild welcomes the newly published Communication on strengthening the European Child Guarantee and believes it can help drive the urgent action needed to reverse current trends. However, ambition must now be matched with sustained political commitment, stronger implementation and adequate dedicated funding beyond 2027.

The Eurochild network remains fully committed to supporting the uptake and effective implementation of the European Child Guarantee across Europe.

Five years after its adoption, the message is clear: Europe has made a promise to its children. It must now deliver on that promise.

Investing in children’s rights is not only the right thing to do, it’s also the smartest investment Europe can make.

[1] Lundborg, P., Rooth, D. O., & Alex-Petersen, J. (2022). Long-term effects of childhood nutrition: evidence from a school lunch reform. The Review of Economic Studies, 89(2), 876-908.

• Child Sexual Abuse Regulation and expiration of the interim derogation
• Directive on combating child sexual abuse and exploitation
• Victims’ Rights Directive
• ECLAG’s campaign “Choose to See Them”
• Evidence to Protect
• 5Rights Updates
• Ongoing discussions on age restrictions
• AI and children’s rights
• Eurochild’s draft paper on “How children’s background affects their rights in the digital environment”
• Digital Fairness Act
• Audiovisual Media Services Directive review/evaluation
• EU Action Plan against Cyberbullying
• Call for evidence on the Action Plan for protecting children against crime

Read the full briefing

Eurochild welcomes the proposed Council Recommendation on combating housing exclusion and homelessness as a necessary step towards ensuring the right to an adequate standard of living for every child in Europe. This is key to supporting the implementation of the European Child Guarantee. Given the scale and persistence of child housing exclusion across the EU, we urge the Council to adopt it swiftly and to ensure that a children’s rights approach firmly guides its implementation.

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Primary school pupils from across Slovenia gathered at the National Assembly in Ljubljana for the 36th National Children’s Parliament. This year’s central topic was the school system. The young participants were welcomed by the President of the National Assembly and the President of the Slovenian Association of Friends of Youth.

A total of 115 pupils, together with 24 peers acting as young journalists, shared their views and experiences of the school system. Their discussions focused on interpersonal relationships and cooperation, learning content and “school for life”, teaching and learning methods, values, and responsibility.

During the discussions, the children highlighted several key messages:

• Relationships among students have a significant impact on well-being at school.
• There is a need for stronger relationships between teachers, students, and parents.
• Young people want to be more actively included in shaping the school system, with their opinions taken into greater account.
• Learning should include more practical examples that connect knowledge to everyday life.
• There should be more practical content and workshops in schools.
• Pupils would like more education on financial literacy, digital literacy, first aid, etiquette, critical thinking and online safety.
• They expressed a wish for less fontal teaching and more active student involvement.
• They called for less emphasis on memorisation and more focus on understanding and connecting knowledge.
• They pointed out that pupils often feel afraid to ask for help because of ridicule or inappropriate responses.
• The key values they highlighted were: responsibility, respect, empathy, cooperation, family, friendship and critical thinking.
• They also raised concerns about the challenges young people face in taking responsibility for their actions.

These are only some of the ideas and proposals shared during the event. Each year, we are inspired by children’s thoughtful reflections and insight, but we miss adults really hearing them.

At the end of the event, the young participants selected the theme for the upcoming school year: Digital world, artificial intelligence, and the responsible use of technology.

For further information, please contact Petra Zega, Professional Associate, at the Slovenian Association of Friends of Youth.

A) (re)Enforce what we have- Improve the current system and strengthen the legislative framework

• (Re)enforce what we already have: The Digital Services Act, AI Act, GDPR, and Audiovisual Media Services Directive all include provisions to protect children – yet too often, they are not fully used in practice. The real issue is not merely a lack of rules, but a lack of enforcement. The priority should be to apply the existing ones properly, consistently, and with real rigour and effective coordination.
• A higher age limit by itself will not solve the problem: If current age limits for online services are not being respected, simply raising the threshold is unlikely to address the underlying problem. The core question is not just what the age limit should be, but whether effective measures are in place to provide age-appropriate, rights-respecting and safe-by-design services for all children.
• Open the data, build the trust: Giving researchers access to platform data would allow for proper independent scientific scrutiny – something that is essential to rebuild trust and support evidence-based policy. Beyond the Ban: What can really protect children’s safety and rights online?

B) Fix the platform business model – The problem lies in platform design, not in the users

• Make “safe-by-design” the legal default for all digital services accessible to children: This includes stronger privacy settings, filtering of inappropriate content, and switching off manipulative design choices. If a feature only works by keeping users hooked, it shouldn’t be on by default. That includes infinite scroll, autoplay, and algorithmic push notifications targeting children.
• Empower choice, eliminate manipulation: Design recommendation systems that respect children’s preferences by relying primarily on explicit feedback, rather than opaque algorithms that only maximise quick clicks or screen time. Give children a clearer say in shaping their online experience and discourage manipulative systems that push content for short-term engagement, helping children define for themselves what they want to explore and enjoy online. In addition, the Digital Fairness Act should prohibit behavioral advertising for children for all traders, building on the existing ban under the Digital Services Act.
• Slowing things down: Introduce “positive friction” in children’s accounts, such as “think before you share” prompts or limits on reshares, to help young users manage their time and behaviour more consciously. If platforms are designed to encourage constant sharing, they can just as easily be designed to slow things down.
• Help on Hand: Children should have access to clear, accessible and child-friendly reporting and support channels. Platforms should be required to respond within clear timeframes, explain what action has been taken, provide escalation routes, and cooperate with trusted helplines, hotlines and support services where appropriate.

C) Fit for purpose, fit for children- Designing a digital world that safeguards and empowers

• Age Verification as a tool, not the full solution: Age verification must be necessary, proportionate, privacy-friendly, robust, non-discriminatory and transparent. It should not be used as a one-size-fits-all answer to children’s rights and data protection.
• The digital environment should be age-appropriate: All children under 18 should benefit from a high level of protection online. However, safeguards should reflect children’s evolving capacities: younger children may need stronger default protections and limits, while older teenagers should have greater autonomy, choice, and control. In practice, this means age-appropriate settings, recommender safeguards, privacy-by-default, limits on profiling and behavioural advertising, and protections from harmful contact and manipulative design across the whole under-18 spectrum, not a single cut-off that treats all children the same.
• Let children shape the rules: Children should be directly involved in designing policies that affect their digital lives. As shown in Euroconsumers’ national dialogues, they have clear, thoughtful and often very practical views on what works and what doesn’t. They are not just passive users – they are experts in their own experience, and their voices should directly inform the rules that govern their online world, as set out in Euroconsumers’ report Growing up online: Building a digital future for minors by minors and in Eurochild’s position on age restrictions on social media.

D) Age Restriction and Age Verification: same same, but very different – Age verification and social media bans are often discussed together, but they are not the same thing

Age verification is a more specific form of age assurance used to confirm a user’s age before accessing certain online products, services or features. When used carefully, age verification can help platforms provide age-appropriate
experiences and apply tailored safeguards. But it should never be treated as the tool for a blanket ban or as the single silver bullet for ensuring online safety. It is one piece of the puzzle, but certainly not the only one. Used thoughtfully alongside other safeguards, age verification helps create a safer online environment for children.

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The High-Level Conference on the European Child Guarantee, held in Zagreb on 30-31 March 2026, brought together senior government representatives from EU countries, Eastern Europe and Western Balkans, EU institutions, UNICEF and civil society to discuss how the European Child Guarantee can move from political commitment to real implementation across Europe and particularly in the Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine.

For Albania, the meeting was an important opportunity to reflect on the progress made so far. Across several discussions, Albania was often referenced as one of the countries in the Western Balkans that has advanced furthest in the implementation of the European Child Guarantee. This is encouraging not only for Albania, but also because it can serve as a practical pathway and example for other countries in the region that are now entering the process more seriously.

At the same time, the discussions also highlighted a number of important concerns. While UNICEF and the European Union provided updates on the current state of the Child Guarantee, including the new learning hub and regional cooperation mechanisms, much of the space felt heavily institutionally managed, leaving limited room for open and critical dialogue. It was only towards the end of the conference that a more honest discussion emerged around some of the core challenges facing the Child Guarantee today.

Together with other civil society representatives, including our colleague Enrico from Save the Children Europe and the Alliance for Investing in Children, we raised our concerns on the long-term sustainability of the Child Guarantee, particularly in relation to EU funding, national budget commitments and the often-underestimated role of civil society organisations in implementation and monitoring. We also stressed that child participation cannot remain symbolic. If the Child Guarantee is truly about children’s rights and social inclusion, children and young people themselves must be meaningfully involved in shaping policies and evaluating their impact.

The Zagreb meeting confirmed that the European Child Guarantee continues to be one of the most important social policy frameworks for children in Europe. However, its success will ultimately depend not only on technical coordination and political declarations, but on genuine investment of the Governments across EU, Western Balkans and Eastern Europe, accountability and stronger partnerships with civil society and children themselves.

The EU Alliance for Investing in Children welcomes the European Commission’s 2026 Social Package as an important step towards strengthening Europe’s social dimension and reaffirming the EU’s commitment to children’s rights, social inclusion and equal opportunities for all children.

The package includes several important policy initiatives that can contribute to better protection of children’s social rights across Europe. In particular, the Alliance welcomes the strong interlinkages between the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy (APS), the Communication “Breaking the Cycle of Child Poverty – Strengthening the European Child Guarantee” (ECG), the Council Recommendation on Housing Exclusion, and the Communication on Enhancing the Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities up to 2030.

Taken together, these initiatives demonstrate an increasing recognition that child poverty and social exclusion cannot be addressed through fragmented or short-term measures. Instead, they require integrated support systems, coordinated governance, prevention-focused policies, and sustained investment in children and families.

The Alliance particularly welcomes that the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy is explicitly designed to complement and reinforce the strengthened European Child Guarantee. The two initiatives are closely interconnected and share common objectives around prevention, integrated support services, outreach to the most vulnerable children and their families, and breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and exclusion.

At the same time, it is essential that the distinct mission and added value of the European Child Guarantee remain clear and protected. While broader anti-poverty measures supporting households, employment, housing and social protection are necessary and welcome, the European Child Guarantee must continue to serve as the dedicated and child rights-centered EU framework guaranteeing access to quality key services for children in need, including early childhood education and care, healthcare, education, healthy nutrition and adequate housing.

The Alliance also welcomes the accompanying Staff Working Document assessing the implementation of the European Child Guarantee to date. The document provides a valuable overview of progress, remaining gaps and good practices across Member States, while also highlighting persistent inequalities in access to services and support systems. However, it would have been preferable to publish it in the second half of 2026, so that it could have taken into account all the biennial reports submitted by Member States and served as a roadmap for the operationalisation of the strengthened Child Guarantee. In any case, it should be considered together with the Communication itself, as it provides important operational guidance and evidence for future implementation efforts.

“Breaking the Cycle of Child Poverty – Strengthening the European Child Guarantee”

The Alliance welcomes that the Communication acknowledges several key points from our analyses and recommendations. Firstly, it recognises that the EU is not on track to achieve its 2030 child poverty reduction target and the high social and economic cost of child poverty, estimated at 3.4% of EU GDP annually in OECD countries. We also welcome the growing recognition that investing in children delivers long-term returns for social cohesion, democratic resilience, and Europe’s future competitiveness.

This rights-based approach reflects the framework for which the Alliance has long advocated: child poverty must be addressed through guaranteed access to essential quality services for children in vulnerable situations, and with wider and holistic strategies to protect all children, families and carers.

While the Communication is strong in its diagnosis, it remains less clear on the implementation architecture needed to turn its objectives into measurable change. The strengthened Child Guarantee now needs a Commission-led operational framework that clarifies what Member States are expected to do, how revised National Action Plans should be strengthened, how progress will be monitored, and how children, families, civil society, local authorities and frontline services will be meaningfully involved.

Pillar 1: Supporting families and households where children live

The Alliance welcomes the stronger focus on supporting families through the EU Anti-Poverty Strategy. Robust social protection systems, adequate income support, quality employment, affordable housing, and access to childcare are essential for preventing child poverty and supporting children’s wellbeing. We particularly welcome the recognition that poverty is multidimensional and cannot be addressed through income measures alone. The stronger emphasis on integrated support systems, prevention, and early intervention to support families is therefore highly important.

At the same time, the Alliance stresses that labour market participation alone cannot be presented as the primary or sole pathway out of poverty. While access to quality employment is important, many families continue to experience poverty despite employment. Adequate minimum income systems, robust social safety nets and accessible public services remain essential for protecting children and families from poverty and exclusion.

The Alliance welcomes the planned Commission Recommendation on enhancing the efficiency of child-related benefit systems in addressing child poverty. Child and family benefits play a crucial role in preventing poverty and social exclusion, and their adequacy, accessibility, take-up and coordination should be strengthened across Member States. However, child benefits should remain rights-based, adequate, and non-stigmatising. Monitoring and fraud-prevention mechanisms must not become punitive or discriminatory towards families in vulnerable situations. Families should not be portrayed as likely to misuse benefits. Efforts should instead focus on simplifying procedures, improving outreach and ensuring that support effectively reaches children and families most in need.

The Alliance strongly welcomes the increased focus on prevention and family strengthening. Poverty must never be a reason for separating children from their families. Stronger community-based services, integrated family support, parenting programmes, family-centred early childhood intervention, and accessible local services are necessary for communities to thrive, and to prevent unnecessary family separation and support children’s wellbeing.

Pillar 2: Strengthening the European Child Guarantee

The Alliance welcomes the reaffirmation of the European Child Guarantee as the central EU instrument to ensure access to essential services for children in need. The Communication rightly recognises that progress towards the EU’s 2030 poverty reduction target is not on track and acknowledges persistent implementation gaps, including fragmented service delivery, insufficient outreach, weak coordination and unequal access to services.

We particularly welcome the stronger focus on:

• early childhood education and care (ECEC),
• school meals and healthy nutrition,
• educational support, culture, sport, leisure, and other extracurricular activities for healthy development,
• child and adolescent mental health,
• mentoring and support into early adulthood,
• online and offline safety,
• continuity between the Child Guarantee and Youth Guarantee,
• and targeted support for children facing intersecting disadvantages.

The Alliance also welcomes the recognition that children facing the highest barriers require tailored and proactive approaches, including Roma children, children with disabilities, children living in single-parent families, children coming from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, LGBTQIA+ children and children in alternative care, including those in residential care.

The Alliance also calls for the structural expansion of quality school meals for children in need, supported by sustained EU and national funding. School meals should be treated as a practical anti-poverty, health and education measure, not only as an isolated nutrition initiative.

However, major gaps remain regarding how Member States will systematically and concretely identify and reach children who remain invisible to services, particularly children with a migration background, including undocumented children. This group is not mentioned once in the Child Guarantee Communication and has remained particularly underrepresented in the National Action Plans, leaving a clear gap in the implementation of the European Child Guarantee for migrant children (especially those undocumented), and other children with specific vulnerabilities.

The welcomed approach developed for Roma children should be mirrored for all groups facing structural exclusion, including children with disabilities, children in alternative care, children experiencing homelessness, children in precarious family situations, children living in single-parent families and children affected by residence-status barriers.  

The Commission should support Member States in developing concrete outreach methodologies, including proactive identification, community-based mediation, cooperation with civil society and frontline services, non-discriminatory data collection, and low-threshold access points for children and families who do not currently engage with public services.

The Alliance welcomes the stronger focus on child mental health. However, mental health should not be approached only through the lens of digitalisation and online risks. A broader and more comprehensive approach is needed, addressing family environments, housing insecurity, social exclusion, violence, schools system and curricula and more broadly, all educational pressure stemming from rigid educational systems, and access to community-based support services. Education environments can play a decisive role in addressing the mental health of children, but, once again, neither should be seen in isolation but rather in a holistic way. There is also a need to strengthen the focus on maternal mental health, as the evidence is unequivocal: a mother’s health directly influences her child’s development from pregnancy onwards.

The Alliance takes note of the proposed European Child Guarantee Card pilot. If properly designed, such a tool could help reduce administrative barriers and improve coordination between services within countries. However, all planned legislation and policies such as the Digital Fairness Act, the revision of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the Action Plan on the Protection of Children against Crime and the toolkit on radicalisation must remain firmly grounded in children’s rights, accessibility, data protection, non-discrimination and non-stigmatisation principles. The pilot Card must also include strong safeguards for children and families with insecure residence status, and trust-building measures to ensure that the Card does not create new barriers for those who already fear or struggle to access public authorities.

The Alliance also welcomes the stronger links between the Child Guarantee and the Youth Guarantee, particularly through the proposed toolkit on pathways to adulthood. A stronger life-cycle approach can help ensure continuity of support from early childhood into independent adulthood. However, stronger links with the Youth Guarantee must be supported by additional resources and must not lead to the redirection of funding intended for the Child Guarantee.

Pillar 3: Governance, monitoring and funding

The Alliance welcomes the stronger focus on governance, monitoring and participation across the Social Package. The Communication rightly acknowledges the importance of involving children, families, civil society organisations, public health agencies, schools,  local authorities and people with lived experience in the implementation and monitoring of policies affecting them.

However, the Communication does not clearly explain how Member States should revise their National Action Plans, what minimum standards these plans should meet, how successful practices will become a baseline across the EU, or how progress will be monitored. Revised plans must not depend solely on national political will. They should include clear targets, indicators, budgets, responsibilities, timelines, outreach strategies and mechanisms for child, family, civil society, public health, schools, and local authority participation.

While strengthened cooperation with both the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions is planned through the Conclusion of a Cooperation Framework and a Joint Action Plan, the Alliance regrets the absence of a similarly concrete and structured framework for cooperation with civil society organisations and child-rights networks. Similarly, more structured and permanent participation mechanisms are still needed at both EU and national levels. The findings reflected in 2025 Eurochild Flagship Report confirm that many civil society organisations continue to face challenges in being meaningfully involved in the design, implementation and monitoring of National Action Plans.

The Alliance therefore calls for the establishment of a structured cooperation mechanism or a structured dialogue between the European Commission and the EU Alliance for Investing in Children as well as the national consultation mechanisms, including regular dialogue, consultation on policy developments, involvement in monitoring processes, and support for evidence-sharing and participation of children and families with lived experience.

The Alliance welcomes the stronger links between the European Child Guarantee and the European Semester. The European Semester should become a stronger accountability tool for monitoring child poverty reduction and implementation of the Child Guarantee across Member States, through annual meetings of European Semester contact points on the Child Guarantee.  Child poverty and Child Guarantee implementation should be addressed systematically in the European Semester, including through regular analysis of implementation gaps and systematic Child Guarantee-focused Country-Specific Recommendations. We also welcome the Commission’s commitment to improving poverty monitoring through the European Semester, including the development of new indicators by 2028. We encourage the Commission to ensure that these indicators include child-specific and disaggregated data, including by age, disability, ethnic or racial background, migration status, family situation, and care experience.

At the same time, funding commitments remain insufficiently concrete. The Communication recognises the importance of EU funding and refers to the EUR 9.6 billion earmarked under the current ESF+, but it does not reflect the decisive role of the 5% ESF+ child poverty earmarking, the need to apply it to all Member States, or the need for stronger earmarking in countries with above-average child poverty. It also does not respond to the repeated call for a dedicated Child Guarantee envelope of at least EUR 20 billion.

The proposal relies heavily on future ESF+ calls and additional investment channels, but project calls and private/philanthropic contributions cannot replace predictable, public, ring-fenced and accessible funding. The Alliance is also concerned that the planned stakeholder platforms and coalitions involving philanthropic and private actors do not sufficiently clarify the role of civil society organisations and children’s rights organisations.

Social investment and innovation must remain firmly grounded in children’s rights, quality services and public accountability. The Alliance reiterates its call for:

• a strengthened and visible ESF+,
• at least 5% earmarking for tackling child poverty in all Member States,
• stronger allocations in countries with above-average child poverty rates,
• at least 30% social spending earmarking,
• a dedicated European Child Guarantee envelope of at least EUR 20 billion under the next MFF,
• stronger social and child-rights conditionalities,
• and accessible funding for civil society organisations and local actors.

The Alliance also calls on the European Commission to publish a comprehensive 2027–2030 roadmap for implementation of the strengthened European Child Guarantee. This roadmap should clarify:

• how Member States should revise National Action Plans,
• how progress will be monitored,
• how stakeholders will be formally, systematically and meaningfully included,
• how children in vulnerable situations will be addressed and reached, and their families supported,
• and how the strengthened framework will be implemented consistently across Member States.

The next phase must focus on concrete delivery through:

• reinforced child-rights center approach,
• stronger revised National Action Plans including more indicators
• measurable targets and timelines,
• dedicated budgets and responsibilities,
• robust monitoring frameworks,
• systematic use of the European Semester,
• a structured mechanism ensuring the meaningful participation of children and civil society organisations,
• and stronger outreach to children facing the highest barriers.

Finally, the Alliance also welcomes the reference to the Child Guarantee beyond the EU and calls on the Commission to support candidate and potential candidate countries in developing Child Guarantee-inspired measures, including through EU external funding instruments and cooperation with children and civil society.

Europe now has an opportunity to build a coherent, rights-based and preventive social agenda that places children at its centre. The success of the Social Package will ultimately depend on sustained political leadership, coordinated implementation and long-term public investment capable of delivering real change for children and families across Europe.

ANNEX:

Alliance particularly welcomes and offers its expertise and collaboration on these key actions and initiatives announced in the Social Package:

Download the Statement as a PDF

The Problem
Social media, games, and AI are all deliberately designed to keep children hooked, to influence their thinking and manipulate their behaviour. It’s damaging their health, development, and relationships. Politicians are taking notice, but too often their answers:
– Are overly simplistic
– Are limited to social media
– Put the burden on children and parents
– Avoid taking on companies that are breaking the law.

The Solution
Social media bans alone will not make a difference. All tech must be safe for kids by design and defaulIn this crucial year for tech regulation, we need our leaders to:
– Make child safety certification a pre-requisite for all tech used by kids.
– Enforce a legal ban on personalised services for under 13s.
– Mandate age-tiered access and support guardrails for all under 18s that evolve as they grow.
– Use regulatory powers to restrict services that expose children to risk and harm.

The Campaign
Informed by the experiences of children and in partnership with EACA, 5Rights is highlighting this issue to millions of people across Europe, pushing back against simplistic solutions and giving ordinary people a way to make a difference with QR codes linking to campaign actions.

How you can help
To highlight this vital issue and demand meaningful action from our leaders, share their campaign using these graphics.

You can find more information here. If you would like to support by bringing the campaign to your country, please get in touch with 5Rights’ Senior PR Advisor, Niall McGourty, at niall@5rightsfoundation.org.

Jun 29, 2026 11:00 AM CEST

Join this meeting to explore how child helpline and hotline data can be transformed into powerful evidence for protecting children online. Based on the Eurochild-led project Evidence to Protect: Communicating Child Helpline Data for Impact, this session will showcase practical approaches used at the European level, as well as in Estonia and Greece, to communicate child helpline data in ways that strengthen advocacy, raise public awareness, and inform policy development. Participants will discover how frontline evidence from helplines can help shape safer digital environments for children across Europe.

Register here

Statement

The Network for the Rights of the Child (Network) announces the suspension of the support activities for unaccompanied children carried out by the Child Protection Unit of our non-profit association, which were part of the program “Strengthening the protection system for unaccompanied minors and vulnerable women applicants and beneficiaries of international protection”, which is implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and funded by the National Development Program through the Special Service for Coordination and Management of Migration and Home Affairs Programs of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum.

Given the expiration of the relevant cooperation agreement, on 30/4/26, and since, despite our constant pressure for information and planning of any follow-up, there has been no official response and commitment from the competent Ministry of Immigration and Asylum, even at the last minute, the Network cannot maintain its above services to unaccompanied minors at the current time as it does not have the necessary resources but also does not have the necessary authorization and legalization to do so.

As for resources, the Network, throughout the previous period of the implementation of the said program, was essentially forced to self-finance due to very serious delays in the payment of this specific funding, which continue while the program ends today. 

At this point, we would like to recall that the protection of unaccompanied children was a clear and essential choice of the Prime Minister of the country himself, as it was his own decision that created the Special (now General) Secretariat for Vulnerable Persons, which was integrated into the Ministry of Immigration and Asylum. 

Read the full announcement

Further reading

• GUIDE project launches policy recommendations to strengthen guardianship systems for unaccompanied children