Media release
Safer Internet Day
Brussels, 11th February 2025
On this Safer Internet Day, COFACE Families Europe launches its revised Digitalisation Principles and calls on the European Union for a strong implementation and enforcement of EU digital policies and laws, with these 14 principles in mind. COFACE Families Europe aims to ensure that digitalisation and new technological developments support all families and respect the rights of all children.
Over the past decade, the EU has adopted a significant number of EU initiatives to safeguard families and to ensure that digital platforms and products are safe for children, such as the Better Internet for Kids Strategy, the General Data Protection Regulation, the Digital Services Act and the Artificial Intelligence Act. These digital policies and laws are needed to hold technology companies accountable for creating a digital environment where children and their families can be safe and empowered. Given these new initiatives and the current technological developments, COFACE Families Europe has decided to revise its Digitalisation Principles.
At a time when technology companies are reducing their efforts to combat disinformation and other harmful content on their services, it is more important than ever for the EU to enforce its existing EU laws. It is time to allow users to have more control over the services and devices they use. Users should be able to choose how and for how long they interact with digital services and products. This can be found back in “Principle 9 – User control” and “Principle 12 – Health and well-being” of our COFACE Digitalisation Principles.
As stated in “Principle 4 – (Digital) Parenting”, the key role of parents and educators should be recognised and supported. All families should be given support and guidance to access and navigate the digital environment in a meaningful way by reducing their exposure to harmful risks online, without compromising their opportunities to benefit from the positive impacts of digital technologies. This requires a strong regulatory framework which should be complemented by continued dialogue and sharing of experiences between parents, carers, children, and other relevant stakeholders, along with awareness-raising and evidence-based support and prevention measures for families.
These efforts are essential to guarantee that the burden and responsibility does not fall entirely on children and families. As it has become clear that industry self-regulation alone will not work, it is up to EU policy-makers to regulate the online environment to ensure that technology companies create digital services and products that are designed to protect and promote human rights in general, and the rights of children and people with disabilities in particular.
ENDS //
Notes to the editor:
- On 8 and 9 April 2025, COFACE and COFACE member, Väestöliitto, will host a Safer Internet Working Group meeting in Helsinki to find intersections between family, education and digital policies, to address key digital challenges for families of today, and to build stronger partnerships between family organisations, Safer Internet Centres and other stakeholders.
For more information, please contact Bettina Guigui, Senior Communication Officer: bguigui@coface-eu.org
