Digital - Eurochild’s achievements in 2024
Annual Report 2024.
Some figures of our advocacy work on children’s rights in the digital environment and in particular regarding online safety in 2024: we engaged in a total of 35 meetings, of which 10 with industry and 17 with EU decision-makers, including members of the European Parliament, European Commission, Permanent Representatives, and Europol. We completed 4 contributions/consultations, published 14 articles and public statements on our website and intervened in 5 external events and published four policy papers and reports.
2024 was a crucial year to advance children’s rights online, given the high number of EU digital policy initiatives. Eurochild contributed significantly to putting children’s rights at the core of these initiatives and enabling cross-sector collaboration. For example, we worked together with stakeholders to co-sign a statement jointly between Civil Society and Online Providers calling for no gaps in the protection of children against child sexual abuse online.
One of Eurochild’s biggest achievements in 2024 was the successful extension of the Interim Derogation of the ePrivacy Directive in full scope, ensuring online platforms continue to protect children from online sexual abuse while the negotiations of the Regulation to combat child sexual abuse continue. The adoption in full scope and long extension followed Eurochild’s intense advocacy to raise awareness of and work directly with co-legislators, and reflected Eurochild’s position extensively.
Negotiations on the Regulation to combat child sexual abuse are still ongoing, and Eurochild continues to bring children’s best interests to the negotiating table. We published on Euractiv a powerful op-ed calling on EU leaders to step up their fight to end child sexual abuse ahead of the EU elections. In addition, we organised a meeting with 23 Members of the European Parliament to rally support to protect children online with the newly elected members.
In 2024, Eurochild put specific emphasis on informing digital policy with the views and experiences of children and members. In February, we published the report ‘Paving the way to realise children’s rights online in Europe’, which effectively compiled the gaps in legislation and children’s needs across Europe. This report was included in the literature review of the European Parliament report ‘Violence against children in the European Union’.
In April, we released the research ‘Speaking Up for Child Safety Online’, which brought crucial insights from almost 500 children and over 6,000 caregivers to the EU policy debate. We issued specific recommendations for policymakers stemming from these findings, which were well received by legislators.
As a member of the EU Special Group for a Code of Conduct on Age-Appropriate Design, in 2024 Eurochild significantly contributed to the Guidelines for the implementation of Article 28 of the DSA (Digital Services Act), which will support companies to provide a high level of privacy, safety and security for children, building on our submission to the public consultation. While we wait for the final draft in 2025, the opportunity to give early feedback in the process reflects the value of the insights we provide.
We have successfully built the capacity and resilience of child rights organisations at the national level to advocate for online child safety, through information sharing and capacity building sessions on topics ranging from EU policy developments to technical knowledge on safety-by-design and the gaming industry.
Together with members, we drafted Eurochild’s position on children’s rights online, which reflects the views of experts from across Europe on a child-rights approach to protecting children online.
With our members from Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia, we participated in the SMART Balkans-funded project TOMAS (Towards Uniformed Legislation Against CSAM) to raise awareness and advocacy on the need to unify legislative and non-legislative actions fighting the dissemination of CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) in the region of the Western Balkans and to prevent the region from becoming a hub for it. Eurochild has an expert role in the project and has shared its expertise on EU legislation and policies, and has given an advocacy training to the partners and provide advice on their advocacy strategy.
Finally, reflecting our unique capacity as a key interlocutor to bring all of these insights from across Europe to the policy debate, Eurochild became a member of the BIK+ (Better Internet for Kids) Advisory Board in 2024.
Photo from the VOICE project launch in Brussels.
