Safe Digital Futures for Children: Data for Change

The European Parliament, End Violence’s Safe Online Initiative and WeProtect Global Alliance join forces to shine the light on the data scarcity that hampers our ability to secure safe digital futures for children. As the European Union makes progress to protect children from online harm by improving regulation of digital spaces along with its strategy to fight child sexual abuse, the need for reliable data and evidence of what works on a regional and global scale is more urgent than ever.

The lack of systematic, comprehensive and harmonised data collection and infrastructure for robust analysis of online risks and harms for children in the context of other forms of violence remains a critical barrier to securing a safe internet for children in Europe and beyond. These gaps impact the accurate identification of problems and needs, and the effective measurement of progress. They also undermine investments and advocacy resulting in limited political attention and financial resources allocated to the issue. We need better and reliable data, and we also need collaboration, capacity and sustained political support to ensure data is used effectively.

The event Safe digital futures for children: Data for change will kick off a much-needed conversation on the availability and quality of data related to online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA) in Europe and globally. The event will provide a platform for key actors and experts from relevant sectors, including the tech industry, to discuss the current data ecosystem and identify gaps, solutions and opportunities for collaborative efforts with a particular focus on the EU context and the upcoming CSEA legislation

Participants will gain an understanding of:
•  existing data and evidence on the issue and what they are telling us about the experiences of children in digital spaces, and the preparedness levels of national systems and industry platforms to prevent and disrupt abuse, support survivors, etc.
•  critical data gaps that are hampering existing efforts to tackle online CSEA and are creating barriers for a productive conversation between stakeholders' groups, as well as ways in which we can fill these gaps over the coming years.
•  high-quality data generation efforts and concrete examples of how data and evidence have been used to design and inform impactful initiatives to tackle online CSEA..

Who's speaking: Representatives of the EU member states and global leading organizations will contribute to the event, including the members of the WeProtect Global Alliance and experts from the Safe Online initiative.

Who should join: Government representatives, tech industry, policymakers, CSOs, data scientists, violence prevention experts, researchers, advocacy specialists, media, and anyone who is interested in the role of data for a safer internet is invited to participate! You can register to apply for the in-person event at the European Parliament in Brussels (Belgium) or join in via zoom online!