The Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth has published the report “Together for a Better and Safer Internet” on child and youth participation for the Expert Commission in German language. The report documents the workshops held as part of the project “Child Protection and Children’s Rights in the Digital World”, which took place in spring 2026 with children and young people aged between 12 and 17, and brings together the suggestions, ideas and wishes of the young participants in 70 recommendations. These were presented to the expert commission on 7 May 2026.
The usage patterns and experiences reported by the children and young people involved reflect the representative picture of 12- to 19-year-olds in Germany drawn by the German JIM Study 2025. Their needs, expressed in a total of 70 recommendations in the following report, cover a broad spectrum. They reveal a tension between clearly articulated needs for protection and the desire for reliable and competent contact persons on the one hand, and an equally clearly expressed need for autonomy and the desire for empowerment and self-regulation on the other. They attribute improvements in individual skills, opportunities for social interaction, relaxation and entertainment to the use of digital services, which has a positive impact on young people’s well-being and self-esteem.
For 12- to 17-year-olds, school and teachers play a decisive role in the development of skills for navigating the digital environment. With regard to younger children, they recommend starting as early as nursery school to make them acquainted with digital media and teach them basic digital literacy skills. To help them cope with the challenges they face in the digital environment, the children are looking for adults in both educational institutions and the family environment who have the necessary knowledge and demonstrate empathy and an understanding of the significance the digital environment has for young people. As might be expected, the role in which children see their own parents in this context also depends on the family’s level of education and socio-economic status. Young people who grow up in more precarious circumstances must be regarded as more vulnerable, partly due to a lack of family support.
The children and young people involved place the responsibility for ensuring a safe and age-appropriate digital environment with the platform providers. They have specific ideas about how potential hazards can be reduced and risks avoided. In many cases, these are largely in line with the guidelines pursuant to Article 28 of the Digital Services Act. At the same time, they wish to have a say in the design of the digital environment and to have greater control over their own online experience than today.
With regard to possible bans on the use of social media for certain age groups, the majority of participants express reservations and criticism. In their view, it is important to empower young people for the use of digital services and to educate them about the risks. In their opinion bans would more likely increase the appeal of using risky services than help to achieve the desired protective effect.
A total of 105 children and young people took part in the participatory workshops across seven different local communities in Germany. These workshops brought together young people from different backgrounds and with different life experiences to develop and discuss ideas and proposals together. During the five-hour workshops, the participants discussed, reflected on and shared their experiences of everyday digital life, and used scenarios to draw up recommendations for greater protection in the digital environment.
The English version of the report “Together for a Better and Safer Internet”, which covers children’s and young people’s participation for the Expert Commission, is available for you to view on our website.