The digital universe at our fingertips is evolving at an exponential pace. And while rising technologies give us fresh, exciting options, younger generations are moving to online spaces which are often more dangerous than once thought.
The World Health Organisation found one in six school-aged children suffer from cyberbullying, a growing form of harassment manifested through digital platforms as threatening messages, spreading rumours or sharing harmful content.
So how can we make the internet safer for children? The PARTICIPATE project – funded under the EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) – helps parents with practical advice and training. Parents play a key role in how children deal with bullying online, whether they are targeted, see it happen, or take part in it.
Debbie Ging, project supervisor and Professor of Digital Media and Gender at Dublin City University, told us how PARTICIPATE complements existing legislation like the Action plan against cyberbullying, the concrete tools already available to parents, and how MSCA funding allowed them to create a forward-thinking project transcending academic fields and borders.
Can you give us an insight into the goals and scope of PARTICIPATE?
Debbie: "To date, there has been very little focus on the critical role that parents play in cyberbullying. It is not just about safeguarding children, but also about intervening, talking to them about online risks and creating the right conditions to teach them what it means to be a digital citizen.
"PARTICIPATE tries to address this gap by combining sociological approaches with frameworks from educational psychology. We have an incredibly multinational consortium featuring key international figures in cyberbullying coming at it from different perspectives, such as Hildegunn Fandrem (University of Stavanger), Christina Salmivalli (University of Turku), Dorte Marie Søndergaard (University of Aarhus), Liza Tsaliki (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) and Eszter Salamon (International Parents’ Association).
"When it came to recruiting our 10 Doctoral Candidates, we were blown away with the quality of applicants. They come from China, Russia, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Portugal, India and Pakistan, and are each completing a PhD on a different aspect of the issue: parents’ concerns, experiences, how they deal with incidents that their children encounter… but also prevention, intervention and relations with teachers and schools. So we truly feel we have the best people possible for this project. "
How does PARTICIPATE provide a fresh approach to conversations on cyberbullying to influence current and future legislation?
We want to move beyond questions of simply banning, blocking and reporting harmful content – the bigger picture must be about children's rights.
Debbie: "This involves a lot of interrogation of how social media platforms can undermine the principles of equality and digital democracy.
"While they might seem appealing, social media bans let platforms off the hook as they remove the onus on tech companies to build in safety-by-design and put too much focus on parents to become the gatekeepers. We want to ensure that social media platforms are legislated like any other product on the European market, so they go through stringent safety procedures and banned if deemed not safe for consumption.
"We are pulling together our findings into various toolkits and reports containing recommendations for governments. We will be soon sending a report to the Media Commission in Ireland, which has a pivotal role in the implementation of the Digital Services Act since many tech companies are based here.
"We will also host our final conference in Brussels on 11-12 June. The first day will be a policy-oriented event for MEPs, policymakers and stakeholders, while the second will present the academic findings of the project."
What practical tools or resources is PARTICIPATE creating to help parents navigate the online world?
Debbie: "Each of our work packages is producing a substantial number of practical toolkits for use by parents, schools and teachers. For example, my package is producing a toolkit on supporting parents in critical digital literacy, which explains complex concepts like privacy, surveillance and algorithmic literacy in an accessible way.
"We also provide conversation starters and guidance on how to open up these kinds of discussions with their children in a non-confrontational way to avoid them feeling interrogated."
As we celebrate 30 years of the MSCA programme in 2026, how would you describe its contribution in supporting ambitious interdisciplinary projects like PARTICIPATE?
"It’s a very interesting programme. It gave our doctoral candidates a unique exposure to an enormous number of contacts in academia, as well as in the NGOs and tech companies in which they completed their secondments.
"They really developed as academics, but also as project managers, communicators and employees – and they will complete a PhD having already developed an excellent professional network, which they would have had to build from scratch otherwise.
"From the perspective of the beneficiary and associate partners, we have gained access to many strategic partners in various countries and have therefore also expanded our professional networks in exciting ways."
With the project due to end this year, how have your goals evolved, and what impact do you hope the project will leave behind both professionally and personally?
It's become apparent that the project's findings will be more relevant than we anticipated and will likely have a genuine impact on European laws.
Debbie: "Given the pressure that social media companies are now under, and the developments that have happened with the Digital Services Act and the AI Act, it's an exciting time in terms of legislation.
"Most importantly, the project is greater than the sum of its parts. The doctoral candidates already form a tight-knit, fully-fledged network of professionals who will stay in contact throughout their professional lives. They socialise together, support and host each other, and have become great friends, which makes the evolution of our project wonderful from a human point of view.
"Working in academia is tougher than you might think and it can be quite lonely sometimes, so it’s great to be able to foster this culture of support and collaboration."
More information
More information about PARTICIPATE
Details
- Publication date
- 27 April 2026
- Author
- European Research Executive Agency