EAN, a network of organizations and individuals across the EU working together to share best practices and who campaign to eradicate bullying, welcomes EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's proposed EU KIDS Act. 

It rightly states that minors face many risks online, including bullying and that these are real and urgent issues.

EAN and its members were pleased to feed into the Commission's Action Plan against Cyberbullying. Bullying and cyberbullying concern children, parents and 'bystanders' alike and this proposal opens the perspective of an important contribution toward meaningfully tackling the issue.  It is welcome that the proposal addresses issues related to a variety of online spaces, not just social media. 

EAN also welcomes the focus on safety by design and how such features can reduce the risk from strangers targeting and bullying children in online spaces.  

Simultaneously, however, EAN believes that there still remains a substantial need and potential for the EU KIDS Act to be more ambitious, not in the least in identifying and promoting ways to put artificial intelligence to active use in the combat against online abuse and cyberbullying.

With robust expectations EAN now looks forward to a constructive and ambitious response on the side of the member states and the European Parliament, underscoring the urgent need of implementation of measures contained in the Commission's proposal and beyond, given the magnitude of impact, the speed and the ethical challenges of current technological developments in the field of digital communication and artificial intelligence.