This exciting award aims at encouraging children and adults to create new and highlight already existing child-friendly, quality online content. The European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes said: "The online world can be a great place for kids. I dream of building a Better Internet for Children: with the right online content, kids can explore, play and learn safely – ensuring they have a great time while also gaining the skills for a digital world. I hope this this competition can generate and celebrate bright ideas from across Europe". National heats of the competition will run until November through the Safer Internet Centres, with the best national initiatives going forward to compete at European level. The top-three European resources in each of the four categories will be awarded on Safer Internet Day in February 2014.

In order to get assistance for tasks where specific expertise might be required relating to the Safer Internet Programme, the Commission may open calls for experts. The tasks of the experts are usually related to the evaluation of proposals submitted in response to calls for proposals, and the review of individual Safer Internet projects, as well as legacy projects funded under the Safer Internet plus programme.

The Commission has presented the results of joint work of media, technology, telecoms and online companies undertaken since their December 2011 commitment to make the internet a better and safer place for kids.

Links to company statements and other key documents

The CEO Coalition makes its first recommendations to make the internet a better and safer place for kids

Commission study on benchmarking of parental control tools shows a positive trend in the availability of parental controls

The Commission has set out a plan to give children the digital skills and tools they need to benefit fully and safely from the digital world.

Vice-President Neelie Kroes, responsible for the Digital Agenda, is due to welcome the Council's conclusions on the Commission's Communication on a European Strategy for a Better Internet for Children, which grouped action around four main goals.

European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes and the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano have today signed a Joint Declaration in London, committing to make the Internet a safer and better place for children.

With the holiday season already starting and millions of Europeans intending on travelling within and outside the European Union, there are certain travel considerations that every European should be aware of. Whether these concern having a health insurance, resolving travel disputes with an operator, using a mobile phone abroad or even missing a child, these tips provide a useful insight into the ways in which the EU is working to help and assist EU travellers.

116 000 is an easy-to-remember and free-of-charge phone number to report missing children. In a recent survey, 91% of Europeans find this service useful. But that overwhelming support is not translating into awareness. Even in member states where the number is operational, only one in five people feel they have enough information about it. That is why, in a dedicated Conference today, Vice-President Kroes urged Member States to make the hotline fully operational and to take any action to boost awareness.

Vice-President Neelie Kroes, responsible for the Digital Agenda stated: "I urge every parent or carer to keep the number 116 000 within reach. 82% of Europeans have never heard of this life-saving 116 initiative. That is a shame that national governments must work with the European Commission to fix, to make Europe a safer place for all children."

Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and Mr. Tatsuo Kawabata, Minister for Internal affairs and Communications, Japan, met in Brussels on 3 May to reaffirm their close partnership in the area of ICT. In particular, they discussed Internet policies, Internet security, cloud computing, Safer Internet for children, Cooperation on ICT R&D, and Healthy Ageing.

The Commission has set out a plan to give children the digital skills and tools they need to benefit fully and safely from the digital world. The internet was not designed with children in mind, but today 75% of children use the internet, a third of them on mobiles. The new strategy is to build up the market for interactive, creative and educational content online, in a partnership between the European Commission and Member States, mobile phone operators, handset manufacturers and providers of social networking services.

On Safer Internet Day tomorrow, 7th February, more than 100 events in 30 European countries will encourage children, their families and teachers, to discover the digital world together. This is the ninth annual Safer Internet Day, celebrated in more than 70 countries worldwide as part of a global drive to promote safer Internet for children and young people.

28 leading companies have come together to form a new Coalition to make a better and safer internet for children. Put together by the Commission, founding Coalition members are: Apple, BSkyB, BT, Dailymotion, Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, France Telecom-Orange, Google, Hyves, KPN, Liberty Global, LG Electronics, Mediaset, Microsoft, Netlog, Nintendo, Nokia, Opera Software, Research in Motion, RTL Group, Samsung, Sulake, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Telenor Group, Tuenti, Vivendi, Vodafone. Priority actions include making it easier to report harmful content, ensuring privacy settings are age-appropriate, and offering wider options for parental control, reflecting the needs of a generation that is going online at an increasingly young age.

The EU Council for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport will take place on 28-29 November. Neelie Kroes, Vice-President responsible for the Digital Agenda, and Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, will represent the European Commission.

Results from a study just released by the European Commission show that parental control tools tested have become more effective at blocking adult content and other harmful content since the first tests conducted last year. However the tools are less efficient at filtering content related to racism and self-harm (sites promoting anorexia, suicide or self-mutilation). In general, the tools cannot filter all the different kinds of user generated content on the internet – while they can block access to things like social networks and streaming services, only very few tools are able to filter contacts in applications such as Skype and MSN.

How Member States are implementing EU Recommendations ensuring children can enjoy the digital world confidently and safely are reviewed by the European Commission in a report presented today. Member States and industry are increasingly making efforts to implement EU Recommendations dating from 1998 and 2006 on the protection of minors using audiovisual and online services. But the measures taken have been insufficient overall.

The views of telecoms operators, Internet service providers, Member States, national data protection authorities consumer organisations and other interested parties are being sought by the European Commission on whether additional practical rules are needed to make sure that personal data breaches are notified in a consistent way across the EU. The revised ePrivacy Directive (2009/136/EC), which entered into force on 25 May 2011 as part of a package of new EU telecoms rules, requires operators and Internet service providers to inform, without undue delay, national authorities and their customers about breaches of personal data that they hold. The Commission wants to gather input based on existing practice and initial experience with the new telecoms rules and may then propose additional practical rules to make clear when breaches should be reported, the procedures for doing so, and the formats that should be used. Contributions to the consultation are welcome until 9th September 2011.