News Overview 2025

The Digital Services Act (DSA) has been in force in the EU for a year now. The DSA is referred to in many current debates on internet security. For example, when it comes to disinformation campaigns. Or the worrying influence of individuals such as Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg on large social media platforms. What exactly does the DSA do? What dangers does the law protect us from? And what are the allegations of censorship all about?

Young people are increasingly voting for a party that is being monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist. This was shown by surveys and the results of last year's European elections. This trend can also be seen in other European countries. In a new worksheet, pupils learn about the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party manifesto and compare key statements from it with the German Basic Law and the EU Treaty. Pupils can use specific examples to explore the topic of democracy in the context of the 2025 federal elections.

Safer Internet Day (SID) 2025 was celebrated worldwide on February 11. Together with the partners of the Safer Internet DE association, klicksafe is implementing the motto "No likes for lies! Recognize extremism, populism and deepfakes online" with a wide range of activities. With our digital school lesson, we were able to educate over 31,000 schoolchildren across Germany about right-wing extremist propaganda and disinformation online. In Berlin, we organized a dialogue panel with pupils, experts and Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus. A big thank you to everyone who helped make this year's SID such a success. The SID may be over, but there are still many more activities throughout February. More than 300 campaigns were registered with klicksafe for the SID. In our article you will get impressions and an overview of this special day.

Today is the day: We are celebrating Safer Internet Day (SID)! Over 300 events have been registered for the day of action across Germany. Together with numerous partners throughout Germany, a wide range of offers for young people, parents and educational professionals will be presented under the motto "No Likes for Lies". There is sure to be something for you too! But you can also help make the internet safer for children and young people today on social media or with our many new materials for teachers, parents and young people!

In the klicksafe expert talk on the topic of "Preventing extremism", we speak to psychologist and extremism expert Ahmad Mansour. In his youth, the Palestinian-Arab Israeli experienced a phase of radicalization himself and belonged to an Islamist group. After experiencing an attack, he moved to Germany in 2004 and has been involved in the prevention of extremism for many years. In the klicksafe expert talk, he explains how we can protect young people from extremist propaganda on the internet.

To mark Safer Internet Day (SID) on February 11, JUUUPORT is releasing a new educational video about deepfakes and associated dangers such as blackmail with nude photos and cyberbullying. The video entitled "Deceptively real! What you should know about deepfakes" was produced with the support of the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media (BLM). It raises young people's awareness of the risks of AI-generated fakes on the internet at a low threshold and shows them how they can get help.

Wars, attacks, climate catastrophes - young people also use social media to find out about current news and socio-political issues. The special evaluation of the PISA 2022 study on information literacy recently published by the Technical University of Munich shows that many young people in Germany have problems recognizing fake news and assessing the quality of online information. A third of the young people surveyed in Germany do not check whether information from the internet is correct before sharing it on social media. We provide tips and advice on how you can educate young people on how to deal with disinformation and promote their information literacy.

The use of generative AI tools now makes it very easy to create fake images, videos or audio recordings of people - so-called deepfakes. Deepfakes can be particularly dangerous if they are created and distributed by extremist groups for the purpose of targeted disinformation. For example, to create a political mood. In the klicksafe expert talk on "Deepfakes and extremism", we talk about this with Dr. Bernd Zywietz. He is head of the Political Extremism department at jugendschutz.net.

Manipulative deepfakes and extreme hate messages flood the social networks where children and young people spend many hours every day. To mark Safer Internet Day 2025 on February 11, the EU initiative klicksafe, together with numerous campaign partners, is offering a wide range of media skills to protect and educate young people. Our new teaching material on the topic of right-wing extremism offers teachers extensive support in dealing with this topic at school.

Roblox is one of the most popular gaming platforms worldwide - especially among children. Roblox was previously approved by the Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) for children aged 12 and over. Following a new review, the USK has now come to the conclusion that the platform with its current content and functions is no longer suitable for children. It has issued a 16+ rating. We explain why Roblox is now 16+, what this means for parents and their children and why educational professionals in particular now need to be careful.

klicksafe and the advice and education platform JUUUPORT are publishing a new flyer today entitled "F***, I'm being blackmailed with naked pictures! How to protect yourself from sextortion". The new information material is a reaction to the increasing number of cases of sextortion among young people. The flyer can now be downloaded and ordered free of charge from the websites of both organizations.

Safer Internet Day takes place worldwide in four weeks' time. On this day, we stand together for a better Internet for children. Over 80 campaigns have already been registered in Germany to mark Safer Internet Day. You too can become active and take part in campaigns throughout February. We offer schools the opportunity to take part in a digital lesson. You can simply register your classes for free.

An election campaign without the media? Unthinkable! But what are the connections in detail, what dependencies are there and what role does disinformation play in the election campaign? From January 20 to 24, these questions will be answered as part of an action week for school students. Registration for the various online and on-site events is now open.

Meta has announced in a press release that it will discontinue its fact-checking program on the Facebook, Instagram and Threads platforms. Instead of professional fact-checking organizations, the community will now decide whether statements are truthful or not. At the same time, the rules for hate speech on the platform have been changed and significantly weakened in some areas. We explain what exactly is changing and what these changes mean for users in Germany and the EU.