10 settembre 2026
Condividi su:
Children and teenagers across Europe are using digital technology, but they are concerned about the risks it entails, including online hate speech, privacy breaches and the impact that the use of technology may have in the future on the planet and on human autonomy.
These are some of the findings from the new EU Kids Online Report, presented on Thursday 10 September at the Conference on Online Safety for Children and Young People organised by the Irish Presidency of the European Union at Dublin Castle.
The full EU Kids Online report
This report is based on a survey conducted between April 2025 and April 2026 among 28,465 children aged between 10 and 16 in 19 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Spain, Finland, Croatia, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia).
Smartphones are by far the main device used by children and young people to access the internet. 87% of children and young people use a smartphone or mobile phone to go online every day, a further increase compared to 80% in 2020. Girls report using their smartphones more frequently than their male peers. Across the various countries, 61% of girls, compared with 55% of boys, use it to go online several times a day. This habitual daily use increases steadily with age, rising from 27% of 10-year-olds to 76% of 15–16-year-olds.
Across Europe, around two-thirds of children say they regularly use AI tools, often finding them useful as a learning aid and for saving time. For example, 37% of respondents hope that AI will enhance human creativity. Furthermore, a third of respondents believe that new technologies will free students and workers from the time spent on tedious tasks.
However, others are concerned about the future: 41% expressed concern that AI-based technologies harm the environment and consume too many natural resources, and also that AI might surpass human intelligence to the point where it becomes impossible to maintain control over it.
Young people are using digital technologies more and more frequently, but they are also wary of how their personal data is collected and used. Half of the sample fear that their data will be used for targeted advertising, and four in ten fear that companies will share their data with third parties without their consent. There is a certain level of mistrust towards tech companies: 39% of the sample do not believe that companies adequately protect their online behaviour and preferences. On the other hand, 30% of respondents say they trust companies to protect their privacy.
Concerns also extend to the use of data by authorities and institutions. More than a quarter of respondents fear that information collected by apps and websites could influence police decisions on who to arrest, whilst only one in five supports the use of AI to predict school admissions or future employment prospects.
Exposure to harmful content is a significant aspect of children and young people’s online experiences, with variations from country to country. 30% of respondents encounter hate speech at least once a month, ranging from 15% in Ireland to 40% in Serbia. Girls generally report greater exposure than boys, with 60% of girls and 55% of boys having encountered hate speech across the various countries.
Respondents also report being exposed to a range of potentially harmful online content. Violent or gory images are the most commonly reported category (40%), followed by content on how to lose weight (39%) and on how to harm oneself physically (37%); suicide is the least frequently reported category among those analysed (25%). Looking specifically at content on how to harm oneself physically, 15% of young people say they have seen such content at least once a month, and a further 24% have seen it on a few occasions (ranging from 6% in Ireland to 24% in Belgium and the Czech Republic).
These expectations, concerns and hopes of children and young people suggest a number of priorities for policymakers, including reducing the environmental costs of AI, ensuring human oversight in every algorithmic and AI process, designing digital spaces and technologies that are safer, more private and capable of empowering young people, and devising different online safety measures, as there is no single ‘European digital childhood’.
The EU Kids Online representative for Italy and professor of Digital Media and Society at Università Cattolica, Giovanna Mascheroni
highlights some Italian data worth reflecting on: "Only 19% of Italian children and teenagers say they feel safe online: the lowest figure in Europe and well below the European average (48%). Only 14% believe that there are kind and cooperative people online. The fact that the online climate in our country is particularly negative is also evident from the figures relating to the presence of hate speech and racist and discriminatory content: the percentage of respondents who have encountered hate speech is higher than the European average, and lower only than in Belgium, Serbia and Finland. Italy is also second only to Romania in terms of the number of teenagers and children who intentionally seek out hateful content".
Although the majority of children (58%) know what to do when someone behaves in ways they do not approve of online, only 19% of Italian children and teenagers aged 10–16 say they feel safe online (compared with 48% of the overall European sample). Gender differences are considerable (only 13% of Italian girls feel safe online, compared with 24% of boys). Differences linked to age, gender and socio-economic status also emerge in terms of exposure to risks.
Intentional exposure to hate content is higher in Italy (15%) than the European average (10%), particularly amongst teenagers, 15–16-year-olds and children from lower socio-economic backgrounds.
The number of children and teenagers who felt distressed (upset, uncomfortable or frightened) by something they experienced online has risen further since 2018: in fact, in line with the European average, 22% reported feeling distressed in the previous month. Although the most common risk is exposure to harmful user-generated content (72%) or hate speech (62%), it is also significant that 51% of Italian children and teenagers now report having been treated in an offensive or unpleasant way, both online and in person. Girls are more likely to be victims of bullying and to be exposed to hateful content.
Socio-digital inequalities are systemic and persistent, particularly with regard to digital literacy: girls (38%), boys aged 11–12 (40%) and children from lower socio-economic backgrounds (34%) are less likely than boys (50%), 15–16-year-olds (55%) and children from higher socio-economic backgrounds (46%) to say they are able to check whether the information they find online is true.
An article by
