Our story

A timeline of our key achievements

2002

Creation of the hotline

Child Focus obtains the mandate as civil contact point to receive reports of child sexual abuse material found online

2010

Launch of Internet Safe & Fun

Child Focus involves industry partners in the awareness raising programme Internet Safe & Fun

2011

Creation of the 116 000 Helpline

The 116 000 becomes also the helpline on e-safety related issues, accessible for victims of online sexual exploitation or anyone who has questions related to the online experiences of children and young people.

2015

Foundation of Belgian Better Internet Consortium (BBICO)

Child Focus, Mediawijs, Média Animation and the Conseil supérieur de l’éducation aux médias start working together and set up the Belgian Safer Internet Center (BBICO)

2015

Identification and federation of stakeholders in Belgium

BBICO sets it objective: to make media literacy stakeholders across Belgium working together through BetternetLabs

2016

Listen to the voices of youth I

Apestaartjaren research to understand children’s media use in Flanders becomes part of the Belgian Safer Internet Center

2017

Hotline obtains mandate to analyse reports

Child Focus hotline obtains mandate to analyse child sexual abuse material received through the civil contact point www.stopabuseimages.be, based on a collaboration protocol with Belgian Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA).

2019

Vulnerable children and the digital world

BBICO starts paying extra attention to the digital experiences of vulnerable children.

2020

Listen to the voices of youth II

Génération 2020 research is launched to study children’s media use in Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles

2021

BBICO become a one-stop-shop

The Belgian Safer Internet Center becomes a one-stop-shop to provide professionals with tailor made tools to work with children in and on the digital environment

2022

From BBICO to Betternet

BBICO is refreshed and rebranded to become Betternet: a way of emphasizing our positive vision of the internet and the digital technologies.

What's next for Betternet?

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