Regulating digital spaces for child safety: a proposal for EU age restrictions for social media
Age restrictions on social media are not inherently problematic, but applied without safeguards, they risk exacerbating harm and disproportionately limiting children’s rights and agency. We propose below a proportionate and child-rights respecting policy approach to operationalize age restrictions. After over 4 years of continued effort by the EU to regulate online platforms, the real effects […]
Our tobacco moment? Protecting children online must be built by design – not pursued platform by platform
Child Helpline International is closely following the landmark proceedings brought by 29 US states against Meta, concerning allegations that Facebook and Instagram have used design features that encourage compulsive and excessive use among children and young people. The case forms part of growing scrutiny worldwide of the impact that engagement-driven digital design can have on […]
Supporting Children and Young People in an AI-Enabled World
Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of children’s everyday lives. For many children and young people, AI tools are already helping with homework, answering questions, sparking creativity and offering new ways to learn. As these technologies become more accessible, they will continue to shape how children seek information, solve problems and engage with the world […]
Helping Shape Africa’s Future for Child Protection
How can Africa build even stronger systems to protect children – both online and offline? That question brought together governments, children’s rights organizations, technical experts and young people themselves at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on 16–17 July 2026, for the ARISE Africa II Validation Meeting. Representing Child Helpline International was African […]
CHI Welcomes Recommendations Placing Children’s Rights and Platform Responsibility at the Centre of Online Safety
Child Helpline International (CHI) was honoured to participate in the Special Panel appointed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to advise the EU on next steps regarding online child safety and potential age restrictions on accessing social media. Today, the co-chairs of the Special Panel have issued a comprehensive set of recommendations drawing […]
Child helplines urge Irish EU Presidency to secure the future of Europe’s Safer Internet Centres
AMSTERDAM – Child Helpline International (CHI), INHOPE and Insafe, together with 26 organizations from 19 EU Member States and two neighbouring countries, are calling on the Irish Presidency and all EU institutions to help secure the future of Europe’s Safer Internet Centres. For more than two decades, Safer Internet Centres have been an integral part […]
Joint Statement on potential age restrictions for children to access social media
Child rights organizations and experts unite to call on the EU to steer away from social media bans
BRUSSELS – Ahead of the third meeting of the Special Panel advising President Ursula Von Der Leyen on a potential social media ban in the EU, more than 170 child rights organizations and experts across Europe have joined forces to call for a more nuanced and rights-based approach. Since last year, and inspired in part […]
Safer Digital Environments for Children: Waiting is Not an Option
On 23 June 2026, policymakers, regulators, industry leaders, academics and child rights experts gathered at the OECD High-Level Roundtable on Regulatory Co-operation for Safer Childhoods Online in Paris. Organized by the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation in partnership with France’s data protection authority (CNIL) under the auspices of the G7, the event focused […]
The Livingstone Declaration – One Year On
It’s exactly one year ago that the 11th International Consultation of Child Helplines, held in Livingstone, Zambia, concluded with the signing of “The Livingstone Declaration”. Building upon commitments, pledges and undertakings outlined in previous International and Regional Consultations, it was a statement by our child helpline members of their commitments towards strengthening and expanding child […]
A childhood free of exploitation
We need an ambitious DFA to protect our children and our future democracies
Big Tech is lobbying hard to weaken the EU’s upcoming Digital Fairness Act. And children across Europe will ultimately pay the price, should they succeed. Every day, more than 1,500 children contact child helplines across Europe with mental health concerns shaped by their experiences, both offline and online. These are not singular cases – they […]