British News Agency

Part of the plan includes rolling out an EU-wide app that will allow children to secretly report bullying to a national helpline, store and send evidence securely, and seek help from law enforcement, education, or child protection services.

Although still in its early stages, the EU executive said it would develop a draft app that the 27 member states of the bloc could adapt for local use, drawing on successful existing models such as France's "3018" app and helpline.

The Commission noted that cyberbullying affects one in six children aged 11 to 15.

This proposal comes as the EU makes significant efforts to protect children from harmful social media effects; these efforts include researching a bloc-wide ban for young adolescents, working on new age verification tools, and taking action against "addictive" features in apps.

Last week, the Commission found that TikTok's addictive design violated the European Digital Services Act (DSA) and did not provide sufficient protection for users.

Regulators' preliminary findings reflect the growing pressure on social media platforms regarding screen time, particularly for children and teens. Regulators around the world are increasingly questioning whether technology companies are doing enough to protect young users from addictive design features.

Virkkunen said on Friday, "The Digital Services Act holds platforms accountable for their impact on users. In Europe, we are implementing our legislation to protect our children and citizens online."

Beyond the app proposal, the "action plan" for combating cyberbullying includes the targeted implementation of existing EU laws to help reduce this phenomenon.

This includes tightening rules under the DSA to protect minors from harmful content and supporting the targeted implementation of artificial intelligence law to combat the use of deepfake in bullying.