Participation in the European Commission's Special Panel on Child Safety Online
I am pleased to share that I took part in the Special Panel on child safety online, convened by the European Commission following President Ursula von der Leyen’s commitment in her 2025 State of the Union address to bring together a panel of experts on how Europe can make the online world safer for children.
The panel’s work
From March to June 2026, the panel met three times to explore both the opportunities and the risks of children spending time online. The first meeting, on 5 March 2026, examined the existing scientific evidence on the impact of social media and the broader digital environment on children and young people. The second meeting, on 16 April 2026, focused on the regulatory framework and policy approaches to further address child safety online.
For the third and final meeting, held on Thursday, 16 June 2026 at the Berlaymont Building in Brussels, the co-chairs — Prof. Dr. Jörg M. Fegert and Dr. Maria Melchior — invited me to share my perspectives, drawing on my research on digital wellbeing and deceptive design practices in human-computer interaction. Building on the previous sessions, the discussion centred on potential recommendations to further address child safety online, bringing together experts in health, neuroscience, psychology, computer science, child rights, and digital literacy, alongside young people and representatives from civil society.
President von der Leyen attended some of the panel’s earlier sessions; at the final meeting, her cabinet was present on her behalf.
Final report
In July 2026, the co-chairs presented their final report — Child Safety Online: Protecting and Empowering Minors in a Digital World — to the President. The report highlights the critical challenges children face online and provides recommendations on better protecting and empowering them, including on the age-appropriate use of social media and other digital services.
It was a privilege to contribute to this important work, and I look forward to seeing how the Commission reflects on the panel’s recommendations in its forthcoming proposals.