It's a new year and a new decade, and teens and adults around the world hope that respect, safety and freedom will define online life in the 2020s, new Microsoft research shows.

For World Kindness Day, on Wednesday, 13 November 2019, Microsoft called on teens across the globe to assist adults with online issues. That's because, according to their latest research conducted in 25 countries, teens are considerably better than adults at tracking down useful resources to help resolve digital difficulties.

The new school year is well underway in many parts of the world, and parents may be inclined to share news and photos of their star pupil's success or involvement in new activities. Before you do, however, know that teens around the world say parents share (or "sharent") too much about them on social media – so much so that it's become a concern for more than four in 10.

On Tuesday, 5 February 2019, on the occasion of Safer Internet Day (SID), the European Commission announced the next steps in the EU to increase the protection of children and young people on the internet.

UNICEF has launched an Industry Toolkit on Children's Online Privacy and Freedom of Expression. It contains five, rights-based "General Principles" and a practical checklist for companies to review their policies and practices.

On 18-19 April 2018, the third edition of the EMEA Child Safety Summit took place (the first one was held in 2016), organised by Facebook and Google at their respective European headquarters in Dublin. Bringing together multiple experts on child safety online, the two-day summit was a fruitful gathering of stakeholders from the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region, pitching their initiatives and resources for safe and responsible use of the internet by children and young people.

As part of the wider Better Internet for Kids project, we regularly liaise with the providers of online services to provide feedback on new apps and services, and real-life insight into some of the challenges which children and young people face online when using such products, as communicated through our network of helplines and the like. Equally, we welcome information on the steps being taken by industry to help to keep users safe online. We recently heard from Yellow on their approach.

Childnet, part of the UK Safer Internet Centre (SIC), is teaming up with Facebook and the Diana Award to deliver a project that will see thousands of young people across the UK trained as peer educators.

On 6 October 2017, a group of 150 experts from various disciplines and organisations around the world presented "The Declaration of Rome" to Pope Francis at the Vatican, pledging to protect children and young people in the digital age. Here, Jacqueline Beauchere, Microsoft Chief Online Safety Officer, shares her experiences from the event.

In this blog, Catherine Russell, Corporate Social Responsibility Lead at Vodafone UK, talks about the challenges parents face in keeping their children safe online, and the importance of helping young people to develop critical thinking skills and digital resilience. Catherine also introduces the latest edition of Vodafone UK's annual Digital Parenting magazine, providing a whole host of practical help and advice for parents, not just in the UK, but across Europe and beyond too.