Safer Internet Day 2024: joining together for a better internet all around the world

Highlights from this year’s Safer Internet Day 

The 21st edition of Safer Internet Day was exceptionally packed with new initiatives and activities: since the European Commission launched the Digital Services Act package – a series of rules and regulations for online platform providers aimed to create a safer digital space for all users – with some rules that are especially designed to protect minors online - a user-friendly booklet was developed to summarise the main content of the articles focusing specifically on the protection of children and young people online, and it is available in all EU languages from the website of the Publications Office of the European Union. 

The BIK annual report 2023 was also released on the day, highlighting the main achievements and successes of the past year. An accompanying infographic places a specific spotlight on last year's youth activities: for example, they were once again heavily involved in the planning, preparation and delivery of yet another successfully youth-led Safer Internet Forum (SIF). The efforts undertaken in 2023 to highlight and support the learning opportunities available to all in the digital world, and the importance of ensuring that the largest possible number of users, and especially children and young people, are adequately equipped with the skills and competences they need to handle digital technologies responsibly and respectfully will continue in 2024, as the European Year of Skills will run until 9 May 2024 (Europe Day). 

Additionally, the new #AdWiseOnline awareness-raising campaign was launched, focusing on the protection of young people against manipulative marketing practices online, and the corresponding launch of a new research report on such practices, aiming to raise awareness about the online targeting of young consumers, and to shed light on the responsibilities that companies and online platforms must uphold to safeguard young consumers from online influences. 

Furthermore, as virtual reality environments are understandably popular with children and young people, and with their online experiences becoming increasingly immersive, we focused on the EU’s virtual worlds strategy, including a mapping of some useful resources from the European network of Safer Internet Centres.  

Traffic on the Safer Internet Day (SID) website 

On the day of SID itself, www.saferinternetday.org received over 22,000 visits and over 55,000 page views. Traffic to the SID portal in the month leading up to SID (from 05/01 to 05/02) counted over 102,000 visits and over 285,000 page views. This trend reflects our continuing strategy of building awareness of Safer Internet Day – and driving traffic to the site – in advance of the day through an extensive and sustained social media campaign, with the aim that stakeholders deliver (or get involved in) local actions on the day. 

Summary of the activity on social media on the day 

The hashtag #SaferInternetDay gained over 5,000 mentions and reached more than 14 million profiles across several social media channels (X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok) and the web on the Safer Internet Day itself.  

According to preliminary analytics, on Tuesday, 6 February 2024 alone, the @SafeInternetDay on X (formerly Twitter) account received almost 41,000 organic impressions. Over the week leading up to Safer Internet Day (30/01-05/02), the @SafeInternetDay account received over 34,500 organic impressions.

During the week leading up to SID 2024 (30/01-05/02), the Safer Internet Day Facebook page organically reached 28,441 users, and on the day itself 17,949 users – with a total of over 43,000 users reached in just seven days. In addition, figures pertaining to reach and engagement on the Safer Internet Day Facebook page are expected to remain high in the following days due to the post-SID activities. 

Our top-performing post was this “Today is Safer Internet Day” post across all social media platforms. 

Influential supporters 

On social media, SID enjoyed widespread support from the EU institutions, with a press release from the European Commission - including quotes by Vice-President for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Šuica and Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton, and a dedicated video message. On social media, posts by Věra Jourová, Digital EU, BetterNet4EU, Emilio Puccio, Caterina Chinnici, Hilde Vautmans, EU Code Week, Europol, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, the European Research Executive Agency, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training, the European Consumer Centers Network, HaDEA, the European Research Council and DG Migration and Home Affairs celebrated the day. 

Many other influential supporters also helped spread the word about SID online, such as the United Nations, UNICEF (including Executive Director Catherine Russell), EuroChild, Microsoft, Snap, UN Global Programme on Cybercrime, Google, Google for Education, YouTube, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Discord, Sony Interactive Entertainment, UNESCO, the UN Youth Office, UNODC, Youth IGF, the Children’s Society, the Internet Society, Anti-Bullying Pro, Sonia Livingstone, CO:RE, Minister of Public Administration of Italy Paolo Zangrillo, Eurostat, the University of Oxford and the Oxford Internet Institute, the European Parents’ Association, the 5Rights Foundation, euCONSENT, Int’l Telecommunication Union (and Secretary General Doreen Bogdan-Martin), The LEGO Group, Video Games Europe, INHOPE, the CyberPeace Foundation, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, Ofcom, Internet Matters, Interpol, Toy Industries of Europe, Norton, Orange, Minecraft, Amazon India, Surfshark, PureVPN, Bitdefender, Save the Children, ECPAT International, Council of Europe, Trend Micro, Safe Search Kids, the Internet Watch Foundation, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Australian eSafety Commissioner, Habbo, Hotel Hideaway and the Anti-Bullying Alliance, among many others. 

Safer Internet Day in the press 

Articles about Safer Internet Day were published in the BBC, Technical.ly, Medium, The Independent, Council of Europe Newsroom on children's rights, UNESCO News, Xbox Wire, EuroNews, Luxembourg Times, CNBC Tv18, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Zawya, Corriere della Sera, Il Sole 24 Ore, PR Newswire, The Times of India, InfoSecurity Magazine, Deccan Herald, Spectrum News, Times Now, RTE.ie, WRAL TechWire, IT Security Guru, CIO Africa, to quote only a few. 

Greetings from the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres

The celebrations for Safer Internet Day took place all around the globe, including among the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres operating in and beyond Europe. Take a look below at some of the activities that took place in Austria, Sweden, Romania, Ireland, Greece and Croatia. 

Save the date for SID 2025! 

We hope you will join us again next year! We invite you to already save the date for Safer Internet Day 2025 with a global day of focus on Tuesday, 11 February 2025, and events and activities taking place throughout the whole month. 

What next? 

We’ll be continuing to track the events of the day and will be compiling a fuller report next month. In the meantime, keep checking the Safer Internet Day website for the latest information, where we’ll also be adding articles showcasing the many successes of the day. 

Please also visit the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) portal – and subscribe to the quarterly BIK bulletin – to keep up to date on safer and better internet issues all year round, or follow us on our social channels on X, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

If you’d like to get in touch, please contact us at saferinternetday@betterinternetforkids.eu.