Take a look at our Opinion series, with individual voices from inside and outside COFACE, providing different perspectives and insights on topics relevant for families of today.
In a world where technology is an inexorable part of our lives, accessing and making use of it on equal terms has become a vital necessity and a right that makes the difference between full participation and discrimination, between socialisation and isolation, between inclusion and social exclusion.
Harmonising Personal Insolvency Laws: Supporting Over-Indebted Families Across the EU COFACE-Families Europe has been working on tackling over-indebtedness considering its impact on families’ well-being. Besides prevention, personal insolvency laws have a profound...
Ethnic segregation is a widespread and systematic practice in many European countries. These practices are illegal yet continue to shape the lives of children and families across Europe. Our rights to education, housing, and health, ostensibly enjoyed by us all, remain divided along ethnic lines. For many Roma, their enjoyment of these rights is severely limited, often with the tacit support of the state.
As adults, we can feel pretty sure that we know what children need and want. The problem is that we are often wrong. In the DigiGen project focusing on the impact of technological transformation on children and young people, we engaged in research with children and families across Europe.
Establishing a safe and fair European consumer credit market needs to be at the heart of the ongoing review of the EU Consumer Credit Directive (CCD), the EU directive designed to provide consumer protection for this market.
It’s difficult to disentangle the energy poverty crisis from all the other crises the world is experiencing. Over 50 million Europeans aren’t able to adequately light, heat, or cool their homes. A number set to be exacerbated by the multiple, interlocking health, climate, and humanitarian disasters we are facing.
Legislative reforms must be driven by evidence, not by a dogmatic belief in self-regulation. It is only if the EU adopts legally binding rules protecting all children from exposure to all forms of cross-border unhealthy food marketing that it will ensure that their best interests are upheld as a primary consideration.
As a parent and child safety expert, I see great value in how the internet can help children grow. Finding relevant information can be transformational but it’s important that this is done in a way that is safe, protects their privacy, and puts minors in control of their data.
In 2020, Toy Industries of Europe (TIE) launched the Play for Change Awards to celebrate toy makers who help kids confidently navigate the world around them. Toy makers know the power their ‘tools of play’ can have over children and they are choosing to use that power for a very positive change.
