How young people advocate for a safer internet for kids

Marta Gonçalves and Gabriele Battimelli reflect on designing digital platforms with children's safety in mind, the opportunities these platforms offer, and how fresh insights from diverse experts can expand understanding of protecting children online.

1. The panel discussed making online platforms safe by design. If you could redesign one feature of today's most popular social media platforms to make them healthier for children and teenagers, what would it be and why?

Gabriele Battimelli: It would be the recommender system, the algorithm which decides what a young person sees next. Right now, for almost every major platform, it is built to maximise a single thing: how long someone stays on the app, and that one choice shapes nearly everything else a young person experiences online. I would have it switch goals entirely the moment a platform knows it is serving a child: away from engagement and towards learning, discovery and genuinely age-appropriate content.

Marta Lamarosa Gonçalves: Too often, discussions focus on removing one harmful feature or introducing one additional safeguard when, in reality, no single measure can make a platform safe. Children's rights and wellbeing should be considered throughout the entire design process. Nevertheless, some features deserve particular attention. Recommendation algorithms should not amplify increasingly harmful content simply because it maximises engagement, while persuasive design techniques such as infinite scrolling and autoplay encourage excessive use rather than healthy digital habits.

2. Many discussions on child safety online focus on restrictions. What could be done to help children and young people make the most of the positive opportunities digital platforms offer?

Gabriele Battimelli: Young people build real skills, relationships and passions online every day, often ones they would never have found otherwise. The internet is also full of opportunities many young people simply never discover: free courses, free books, study tools and communities built around a specific interest. The gap is often not access, but visibility, and educators, schools and the Commission itself could do a lot more to actively point young people toward what already exists, rather than leaving them to stumble onto it by chance.

Marta Lamarosa Gonçalves: Alongside strong regulations, such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) and effective enforcement, we must invest in digital literacy for children, parents and educators, support awareness-raising and peer-led initiatives, and ensure that organisations promoting children's digital wellbeing have the resources to continue their work. Equally important is meaningful youth participation. Children and young people are experts in their own online experiences, and policies are stronger when their perspectives are genuinely integrated into decision-making.

3. Was there one perspective or argument that surprised you or even made you rethink your views on keeping children safe online?

Gabriele Battimelli: Listening to the panel, I realised little attention goes into what happens after a child is harmed, compared with how much goes into prevention. That moment right after something goes wrong, when a report needs to be made, when support needs to be found, deserves just as much design and policy attention as everything that comes before it.

Marta Lamarosa Gonçalves: One perspective that particularly stood out to me came from Professor Jörg Fegert, co-chair of the special panel and child and adolescent psychiatrist. His explanation of how children's cognitive, emotional and social development evolves throughout childhood highlighted why online experiences cannot be viewed in the same way for every minor. Children interact with digital technologies differently depending on their stage of development, and the same platform feature may have different effects on a younger child than on a teenager.

Beyond parental control tools: what families need to protect children online

Antonia Torrens from COFACE Families Europe spoke to us about the practical support families need and the importance of digital tools that consider safety in their design, not just parental control features.

1. What is the main challenge families face today when it comes to raising children in an increasingly digital world?

The rapid pace of technological change, the widespread use of social media and digital platforms, as well as the growing complexity of online risks, have a profound impact on family life and require parents to continuously adapt. Last year, members of the COFACE Families Europe network organised consultations with parents and caregivers to discuss the implementation of the Better Internet for Kids strategy. These consultations, together with discussions with family organisations across the network, showed that many parents feel overwhelmed by the constant need to keep up with technological developments and powerless against engagement-based, data-exploitative business models.