Child Safety Online: Protecting and Empowering Minors in a Digital World

Keeping children safe online is one of the biggest challenges facing families, schools, and policymakers today. The European Commission's report Child Safety Online: Protecting and Empowering Minors in a Digital World, prepared by a special panel of experts, brings together research and practical recommendations to help create a safer and healthier digital environment for children and teenagers. The report examines both the opportunities and the risks of the online world, including social media, messaging apps, gaming platforms, and artificial intelligence, while highlighting the shared responsibility of families, educators, technology companies, and public institutions.

Rather than focusing only on online dangers, the publication promotes a balanced approach that seeks to empower young people to use digital technologies safely and responsibly. It offers recommendations on age-appropriate digital experiences, stronger online protection, digital literacy, and the importance of supporting children's wellbeing while respecting their rights. The report also stresses that parents and teachers need guidance and practical tools to help children navigate an increasingly complex digital landscape.

Downloads:

https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/d833504d-5ec3-4fac-945f-38e7d0bd5326_en?filename=Special-panel-report.pdf&prefLang=es

Learning English as a foreign language across PISA countries and economies

The OECD report Learning English as a foreign language across PISA countries and economies provides a fascinating overview of how English is taught around the world and the different strategies education systems use to help students develop their language skills. As English continues to play a key role in higher education, employment, international communication, and access to digital information, the report highlights why effective English language teaching has become a priority for schools across many countries.

Drawing on data collected for the PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment, the publication compares when students begin learning English, how much time is devoted to language instruction, and the different approaches countries take to teaching it. The report shows that there is no single successful model: while some education systems introduce English at an early age with relatively few lessons, others start later but provide more intensive instruction. These differences offer valuable insights into how language learning can be organised to support students' progress.

For English teachers, this publication is an excellent source of international perspectives on language education. It can stimulate professional reflection on curriculum design, teaching practices, and the role of English in today's interconnected world. The report is also a useful classroom resource, encouraging discussions about multilingualism, global citizenship, and the importance of learning foreign languages in an increasingly international society. By exploring authentic OECD data, students can also develop their critical thinking, data interpretation, and intercultural awareness while improving their English through real-world educational content.

https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2026/05/learning-english-as-a-foreign-language-across-pisa-countries-and-economies_2c68f972/a704eee2-en.pdf

Teachers' and school heads' salaries and allowances in Europe

This interactive tool makes it easy to explore and compare teachers' and school heads' statutory salaries across Europe through clear and engaging data visualisations. It provides up-to-date information on the annual gross salaries of full-time, fully qualified staff working in public schools, as well as the additional allowances they may receive.

The resource includes data from 39 education systems in 37 European countries that are part of the Eurydice network. In some countries, it also covers government-dependent private schools, where these make up a significant part of the education system. The information is organised according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), covering pre-primary, primary, lower secondary, and upper secondary education. It is a useful resource for anyone interested in understanding and comparing teachers' working conditions across Europe.

https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/data-and-visuals/teachers-heads-salaries

War Atlas

War Atlas is an interactive online platform that uses maps, satellite images, data visualisations, and historical information to explain how wars and armed conflicts affect people, places, and the environment. Instead of presenting conflict only through written reports, the website allows users to explore geographical information and understand where conflicts take place, how they develop over time, and what impact they have on communities, infrastructure, migration, and natural resources.

The platform combines reliable data with clear visualisations, making complex information easier to understand. Users can examine different conflicts, compare regions, and explore how war changes landscapes and human lives. By presenting information in an interactive format, War Atlas encourages users to look beyond headlines and develop a deeper understanding of the causes and consequences of armed conflict.

For education, War Atlas is a valuable resource because it promotes geographical literacy, critical thinking, and global citizenship. Teachers can use it to help students interpret maps, analyse data, discuss current international issues, and understand the humanitarian impact of war. It is particularly useful in subjects such as Geography, History, Social Studies, Citizenship Education, and English as a Second Language (ESL), where students can work with authentic English-language materials while developing vocabulary related to peace, conflict, human rights, migration, and international relations.

https://waratlas.org/

Reading Maps

Reading Maps is an interactive website that takes the fictional and real-life journeys from famous books and films and plots them onto a digital map of the real world. By bridging the gap between narrative storytelling and actual geography, the platform maps out the literal tracks, roads, rivers, and sea routes taken by iconic characters and historical figures. Users can filter through a massive database of classics, contemporary novels, and cinema—ranging from Homer’s The Odyssey and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to modern pop culture staples like Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code—to visually track exactly where these stories take place on our planet.

For educators, Reading Maps is a brilliant cross-curricular utility that brings literature, history, and geography together in a visual format. In an English or literature classroom, it serves as a powerful engagement tool that transforms abstract reading assignments into tangible, spatial adventures, helping students conceptualize the grueling scope of a journey. This spatial visualization is especially beneficial for visual learners and struggling readers who find it difficult to track complex settings or shifting locations solely through text. Furthermore, geography and history teachers can use the site to create highly interactive lessons, encouraging students to compare a character's fictional route against real-world topographies, historical borders, or climate zones. 

https://readingmaps.com/

Advancing Digital Education for Every Learner

If you are looking for fresh, exciting ways to bring technology into your teaching, you will want to check out Advancing Digital Education for Every Learner - Innovative Practices from the EU.

This is the fourth report from the European Digital Education Hub (EDEH), and it is packed with great ideas. The team looked closely at schools across all 27 EU countries and picked out two brilliant, real-life examples from each nation to show how digital learning is growing and changing at every level of education.

To make it easy to explore, the report groups these ideas into three major areas that matter most to modern teachers:

- Digital competences: Clever ways to help students build essential tech skills.

- The future classroom: Inspiring ideas on how to redesign and update our daily learning environments.

- Digital well-being: Practices that help students find a healthy, safe balance with technology.

To find these examples, the Hub sent out surveys to its community of educators, inviting them to share the amazing, innovative work they are doing in their own classrooms. They also did lots of extra research to make sure every country was represented fairly. To pick the absolute best projects, they used a strict, fair rubric system to evaluate each one.

The best part about this report? It is meant to be shared! These ideas are highly adaptable, meaning you can take what worked for a school in another country and tweak it to fit your own classroom, school, or national curriculum. It is a fantastic tool to get inspired and find new ways to help your students thrive in the digital age.

https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/efa878de-6ea9-11f1-ae88-01aa75ed71a1/language-en