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2025 was a busy year for the Platform as we worked to get more children's voices heard in EU decision-making.
Bravo to all our young members who gave their time and enthusiasm to this work! Special thanks to the Advisory Board, Children's Panel and Communication Co-creation Team!
Let's take a look at what we achieved.
Consulting EU children and teens
Consultation activities feed children's voices into EU policy making. These activities collect children's opinions, and our child members often help to scope and review things throughout.
- Call to Action: 80 young members met at our General Assembly in June and put together their hopes, dreams and a set of proposals in five policy areas that matter to them. The Call was presented to EU and national decision-makers at the 2025 EU Forum on the Rights of the Child.
What children want from decision-makers
- Cyberbullying: In a September online survey in all EU languages, 6,343 young EU citizens shared their insights on how to prevent cyberbullying and better support for victims. Their input is helping shape the EU's Action Plan on Cyberbullying which will come out in February.
What children expect from adults
- Poverty and social inclusion: From mid-October to early-December, over 39,000 EU children and teens shared their views through an online survey, and hundreds of others through focus groups and interviews. They responded to questions about access to education, healthcare and housing. Their input will be factored into a review of the European Child Guarantee.
Read some of the input from children
- High-level discussions: Young members of our Advisory Board met with EU Commissioner Glenn Micallef twice in 2025. Children asked questions and shared opinions on important subjects, like child safety, cyberbullying and mental health. The Commissioner sought input from the children and shared details on EU work and programs that benefit young people.
Watch a video of a Commissioner meeting
- Pollinators and biodiversity: Following discussions with children at our General Assembly on the importance of pollinators (which led to proposals in the Call to Action), two of our 'alumni,' James and Rita participated in a Young Citizen's Assembly to help influence policy in this area.
More information on the pollinator's policy
Mutual learning
An important part of our Platform's work is to help our young members get involved in EU level activities with other children, young people or adults so they can learn, develop skills, and build their own networks.
- EU Youth Dialogue on Democracy: Faith and Lisa Marie participated in the Dublin Youth Dialogue with EU Commissioner Michael McGrath in March. As part of a big group of young people, they discussed the voting age, and the importance of education to support democratic participation of young people.
Faith's and Lisa Marie's experiences
- Study Visit to Ireland: Children and adults from 11 EU countries went to Ireland for two days in May to see how they involve children in decision-making at local and national levels. There were special activities for kids and adults, with joint sessions for intergenerational exchange and learning.
Watch the video and get the main learnings
- Safer Internet Forum (SIF): Five of our teen members took part in the organisation and animation of the 2025 SIF event in Brussels in December: 'Why age matters: Protecting and empowering youth in the digital age.' As part of a big Youth Panel, they held preparation meetings and animated sessions together with adults.
Watch the 2025 SIF videos
- Democracy Toolkit: Children have been telling us that there is not enough learning in schools about democracy and civic participation. So, together we co-created an interactive toolkit for 9-13 year-olds. It will be available in all EU languages on the Learning Corner in February.
A sneak peek at the Democracy Toolkit in English
Content co-creation
Over the last year, the adults of the Platform have learnt a lot from young members about the types of content and communication that work best for them. Children have reviewed and tested our website, documents, online surveys and helped create new formats.
- Animated webpages: Adults usually publish documents in the pdf format - not popular with young audiences. We created a new format so it's easier for kids to get colourful language versions, and read and scroll on a mobile phone without having to download anything. See the first three pages (with more to come!)
- Children take the lead: We launched a news section - title voted for by our Communication Team - dedicated to hearing from children. For them to share their experiences, views and the projects they've been working on - all to help inspire others.
Get inspired here!
- Quizzes: Our young members wanted more interaction on our website (plain text is boring!), so we developed quiz formats in 2025. Our Comms Co-creation Team helped to scope the purpose and design, and gave feedback to the tech team throughout the development. The first quizzes will come out in February.
More to see and do