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 Alliance, 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 workshop 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

Management Board elections
Members confirmed a second term for Management Board members, Ulla Siimes from Central Union for Child Welfare, Finland and Sergio Hugo Costa Araujo (individual Member from Portugal).

Presentation of our Achievements
In 2025, Eurochild expanded its impact across Europe, engaging members, allies and policymakers more than 6,700 times and advocating for children’s rights in 406 meetings and events. We published 150+ articles, reached 23,000+ people on social media, began distributing €1.3 million to 48 organisations in 9 countries, impacting 23,000 children, and supported guardians of unaccompanied children in 5 countries. Want to know more? Read our Annual Report

A new Child Safeguarding Policy
Approved by the Management Board on 30 April 2026, and with contributions from the Eurochild Children’s Council, the new Child Safeguarding Policy replaces the former Child Protection Policy and signals a shift from responding to harm to actively preventing it.

A renewed Eurochild Code of Ethics
Reviewed across all governance levels, the updated Code reaffirms the network’s seven core principles: integrity, professionalism, collaboration, non-discrimination, accountability, transparency, and independence, with strengthened guidance on how they apply in practice.

Nine organisations were admitted as full members:

• The Social Teahouse (Bulgaria) is a social enterprise based in Varna dedicated to supporting young people leaving the state care system, providing mentorship, vocational training, and employment opportunities to foster their independence and confidence.
• FUSO (France) equips, trains, and supports children with neurodevelopmental disorders and their families, providing computer and digital learning packages and resources to help neurodivergent children overcome their difficulties and improve their inclusion at school.
• ThinkOnception (Greece) is an organisation with over fifty years of heritage in education that empowers children and young people through innovative training programmes, youth participation activities, and EU-funded projects across education, employability, and social inclusion.
• EPIC – Empowering People in Care (Ireland) is an independent advocacy organisation working with children in care, young care leavers, and care-experienced people up to the age of 26, ensuring their voices inform decisions and policies that affect their lives.
• Asociación para el Cuidado de la Infancia (Spain) has over 30 years of experience supporting adoptive and foster children and families through adoption, post-adoption services, identity support, and advocacy for children’s right to a family and protection.
• Equitat.org -formerly Foundation Jaume Bofill- (Spain) is a think-and-do-tank founded in 1969 that promotes research, advocacy, and innovation to generate educational opportunities and combat social inequalities, with particular focus on systemic change in Catalonia.
• All-Ukrainian Public Center «Volunteer» (Ukraine) is a nationwide civil society organisation with over 25 years of experience protecting children’s rights through the promotion of child-friendly justice, psychosocial support, positive parenting, and prevention of violence.
• Charitable Organisation Ukrainian Education Platform (Ukraine) is an all-Ukrainian cross-sectoral network that has supported over 1.2 million children from families in difficult life circumstances since 2010, focusing on child protection, alternative family care, and education services.
• Charity Foundation Dream to Live (Ukraine) supports children aged 3 to 10 with disabilities and their families through day care, socialisation, and community-based social services, including children with cerebral palsy and autism spectrum disorders.

Five individuals and organisations were admitted as associate members:

• Jonathan Levy (France – individual) is an educator and child rights specialist, Director of Pedagogy & Advocacy at CRIA, UNICEF consultant on pedagogy and children’s rights, and Vice President of the French Janusz Korczak Association.
• Agevolando APS (Italy) is a Social Promotion Association working with and for young people growing up in out-of-family care, supporting care leavers in their gradual transition to adulthood through well-being, participation, and housing and employment opportunities.
• Association For Solidarity And Action For Youth -ASAT (Romania) promotes the social inclusion and empowerment of vulnerable young people, particularly care leavers and those at risk of school dropout, through humanitarian aid, housing support, integration programmes, and arts-based non-formal education.
• Fragment Association (Romania) supports adopted persons and their families by facilitating family reconnection, promoting the right to identity, and providing social, educational, and cultural support through digital tools, counselling, and mediation.
• Bianca Balea (Romania (individual)) is a sociologist and researcher with a PhD in digital inequalities among children and 15 years of experience in equity-focused research on child well-being, online experiences, and education in vulnerable communities.

Where do we go next?

President Tanya Ward closed the assembly with a call for renewed commitment to children as rights holders and to keep pushing for the solutions that already exist to be implemented. At a time of funding pressures, anti-rights movements, and growing political challenges, the importance of solidarity and collaboration across the Eurochild network has never been greater. Members were encouraged to share best practices, celebrate successes, and strengthen collective action to protect and promote children’s rights across Europe.

Looking ahead, the message was clear: by working together to tackle poverty, inequality, and injustice, we can continue building hope for Europe’s children and for the movement itself.

Take a look at the photos from the assembly on Flickr

Child safeguarding is fundamental to ensuring that children under the age of 18 can safely exercise their rights, express their views, and participate meaningfully in decisions that affect them. For Eurochild, child safeguarding is a priority.

Eurochild’s guiding principles on child safeguarding:

• The organisation is committed to ensuring that no child is exposed to harm or at risk of harm.
• A zero-tolerance policy is applied to all forms of violence, abuse, and neglect of children.
• All children have an equal right to protection, regardless of their personal or social circumstances.
• Everyone has a responsibility to actively contribute to the protection, well-being, and empowerment of children.
• The organisation has a clear duty of care towards all children it works with, comes into contact with, or whose lives may be affected by its activities.
• Children have the right to express their views and to actively participate in decision-making processes that affect them, in accordance with their age and evolving capacities.
• The organisation actively promotes, values, and integrates children’s participation in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of its activities.
• All activities and decisions are guided by the “Best interests of the child“ as a fundamental principle, while respecting children’s voices.
• In cooperation with partners, the organisation assumes responsibility for promoting and ensuring compliance with minimum child safeguarding standards.

Alongside Keeping Children Safe, Eurochild’s newly adopted safeguarding policy draws on guidance from the Oak Foundation, a group of experts, Eurochild staff, Management Board members, Eurochild members and Eurochild Children’s Council and the Network of Online Visionaries in Action (NOVA children’s group).

This document replaces the previous Child Protection Policy from 2024.

We strongly encourage all organisations, including our members and partners, to develop and maintain their own safeguarding policies, tailored to their operational context, and legal obligations, and to ensure that these are effectively implemented and regularly reviewed.

Read the full policy

For further information, contact Carine Le Borgne, Eurochild’s Child Safeguarding Focal Person.

Over the past two decades, the organisation has contributed to positive change in the lives of disadvantaged children and adults, managing 9 social services and becoming the largest NGO provider of residential care for children with disabilities in Bulgaria. It also provides more than 11,000 hours of specialised therapy annually to children and young people.

What began as an initiative of a few like-minded individuals, united by the desire to change the lives of children with disabilities, is today an organisation with an established place in the social sphere and making a real contribution to the development of a more supportive and accepting environment in Bulgaria.

The organisation also took part in the event at the European Parliament hosted by Hristo Petrov, Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the Working Group on the European Child Guarantee, which was organised in partnership with Eurochild.

Discover the projects and achievements of the foundation in their annual report below!

Read the full report

Child sexual abuse online is among the most severe violations of a child’s bodily integrity and private life. When images or videos of abuse are created, shared or stored online, the violation does not end with the abuse itself. Each viewing, download or rediscovery repeats the harm. For victims and survivors, the continued online circulation of abusive material means their privacy, safety and dignity are violated again and again, sometimes decades later.

Despite this, public debate around children’s rights online and the proposed EU Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse is too often framed as a stark choice between child safety and privacy. This framing is not only misleading; it is fundamentally incompatible with the human rights framework that guides European law and international obligations. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) recognises both children’s right to protection from all forms of violence and exploitation, and their right to privacy. Children’s rights are interconnected, indivisible, and interrelated and must be balanced considering their best interests, not traded off against one another.

What Frontline organisations tell us

Across Europe, organisations working directly with children see the growing scale and complexity of online harms. Eurochild’s project ‘Evidence to Protect’ developed together with its members, the Estonian Union for Child Welfare and The Smile of the Child in Greece, has highlighted shared risks despite very different national contexts.

Data from Greece and Estonia shows a worrying rise in both named and anonymous reports of child abuse. Behind every report lies a real child with a real experience. Yet sexual abuse remains profoundly underreported in both countries, meaning official figures likely represent only a fraction of the harm taking place.

The types of online risks affecting children and related to digital technologies in these countries include sexual abuse and grooming, the non‑consensual sharing of intimate images, sexual extortion, cyberbullying, and exposure to harmful or inappropriate content. In addition, these risks are increasingly facilitated by emerging technologies and AI. Importantly, data collection systems remain fragmented, and even when data exists, it is often difficult to access it and use it to target interventions, with figures sometimes shared only verbally.

In both Estonia and Greece, a clear pattern emerges: reported risk increases with age, rising steadily through primary school years and peaking in early adolescence. This makes teenage years a critical window for prevention and intervention.

Gender differences are evident, with girls consistently more affected across most categories, although the overall age trend is more pronounced than gender differences alone.

If we look at the broader European Union, evidence clearly shows that the problem extends far beyond Estonia and Greece, affecting children on the continent at an unprecedented scale. Analysts have documented a dramatic surge in child sexual abuse material worldwide, driven in part by the rapid spread of photo-realistic AI-generated abuse. Additionally, reports of online grooming and sexual exploitation are rising sharply, with hundreds of thousands of cases recorded annually and abusive images shared at a relentless pace.

Why Europe Cannot Afford Inaction

Europe plays a central role in this crisis: in 2025, EU Member States hosted more than 60% of all identified child sexual abuse websites. Public awareness of the scale of harm is growing, with large majorities of citizens across several European countries calling for stronger regulation and proactive measures by online platforms.

As of 3 April 2026, a critical EU legislative gap exists regarding the detection of child sexual abuse material online. If companies detect and report child sexual abuse material, they risk breaching EU law; however, if they do not report, abuse continues undetected without any possibility for prevention and prosecution. Fewer reports mean fewer victims identified and fewer children protected. The proposed 2022 Regulation to Prevent and Combat Child Sexual Abuse aims to close this gap through a balanced, proportionate framework with strong safeguards. It includes risk-based assessments, targeted, necessary and time-limited detection measures, case-by-case judicial authorisation, national oversight, and privacy-preserving technologies.

Given the urgency of the situation and the legislative gap, negotiations on the Regulation should advance steadily. Protecting children online does not mean giving up privacy, and vice versa. It means understanding that privacy is a cornerstone of safety, dignity and justice for every child. Upholding both child safety and secure communication is not optional; it’s a legal and moral responsibility for every decision maker in Europe.

10 years of cooperation, between achievements and new challenges. Event by the International Rescue Committee.

How can trafficking survivors be better identified and protected in asylum procedures? BeFree will share their best practices in this field as well as remaining challenges in the field. Finally, it will examine the impact of the new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum on identification, assistance, and protection. At the end, there will be time for questions and discussion among participants on potential strategies.

This webinar is organised within the framework of the EU-funded project REACH (Resilience through Enhanced Access to Comprehensive Help). REACH responds to the need for support and protection for victims/survivors of sexual violence in the context of exploitation and human trafficking by bridging the gap between victims/survivors and support services.

The presentation will be held in English. Live captions are available in French, Spanish, German, Italian, and English.

Please register here