Commission launches action plan against cyberbullying targeting online protection for minors
The European Commission has launched an Action Plan Against Cyberbullying to strengthen the protection of children and young people online across the EU. The plan introduces an EU-wide reporting and support application, improves coordination among Member States, and reinforces existing legal frameworks. The Commission will develop a blueprint for an accessible app enabling victims to report cyberbullying to national helplines, receive support, and securely store and send evidence. Member States will adapt the app to national systems and adopt comprehensive strategies based on a common definition of cyberbullying, understood as repeated harmful behaviour carried out through digital technologies targeting in particular children and young people, in order to allow comparable data collection across the EU. The Commission will review and clarify obligations under the EU Digital Services Act, including guidelines on the protection of minors and trusted flaggers. It will also address cyberbullying in the evaluation of Directive (EU) 2018/1808, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive and support implementation of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, including rules on prohibited practices and transparency requirements such as labelling AI-generated content. The plan strengthens prevention through updated digital literacy guidance for educators, strengthened citizenship education, and expanded resources via Safer Internet Centres and the Better Internet for Kids platform. In parallel, the Commission’s Joint Research Centre, through its Science for Digital Wellbeing programme, provides evidence on the impact of social media, cyberbullying, virtual worlds and artificial intelligence on children’s mental health, education and well-being, informing policy development, enforcement under the EU Digital Services Act, and the design and implementation of the Action Plan.