Digital Is No Longer the Future, It Is Already the PresentIn a context where the lives of children and adolescents are increasingly unfolding at the intersection of online and offline, the Digital Safe, Future Ready round table, organized by our partners at Smart Everything Everywhere, brought together representatives of public institutions, the education sector, civil society, digital platforms, the tech industry, research, the legal field, and, crucially, young people themselves. The tone of the discussion was set from the very beginning by an idea that almost all participants kept returning to: we are no longer talking about a digital future, because digital is no longer something that is coming, but the environment in which children are already growing up. “The decisions we make today will have a medium- and long-term impact” was one of the key messages in the opening, reinforced by another important warning: “The world is no longer the digital future, it is already digital.” For this reason, the discussion was not only about identifying problems, but above all about formulating credible, practical, and sufficiently nuanced solutions to respond to a complex reality.
Technology, Learning, and the Question of Autonomy
A major theme was the relationship between technology, education, and autonomy. Several speakers insisted that technology is not, in itself, either good or bad, but a tool that can support learning or, on the contrary, amplify vulnerabilities that already exist. At the same time, it was made clear that simply having technology present in children’s lives does not mean they have real digital competence. Romania has children and adolescents who spend a great deal of time online, but this does not automatically translate into the ability to critically evaluate information, manage risks, or use digital tools in a conscious way. One participant captured this gap vividly by saying that, in many situations, we have the tool but still do not know how to use it properly: “We have the fork, but we don’t know what to do with it,” while another added that education is not just about access to information, but about “structured and verified information.” In the same line of thought, it was emphasized that the real stake is cognitive autonomy, the ability of children to understand the digital world, not just consume it.
When Online Safety Becomes an Emotional and Relational Issue
The discussion quickly moved into the most sensitive area, the emotional and relational impact of technology. Serious concerns were expressed about dependency, retreating into artificial relationships, and the tendency of some adolescents to seek validation, companionship, or even substitutes for real relationships in artificial intelligence. “We need to be as cognitively autonomous as possible and understand this world as well as we can,” one participant said, warning that without a real understanding of the limits of these tools, children risk projecting their emotional needs into spaces that cannot respond to them authentically. Another speaker went even further and said that, if artificial intelligence is not used properly, it can install “a kind of laziness of thought.” For this very reason, the round table insisted that education for online safety cannot be reduced to technical rules or parental controls, but must also include conversations about relationships, emotional balance, autonomy, responsibility, and meaning.
Why Education Was at the Center of the Entire Discussion
Education was by far the central point of the entire conversation. Almost every intervention returned to the idea that we will not have children who are truly prepared for the digital environment as long as teachers themselves are not sufficiently trained to integrate technology in a critical, pedagogical, and relevant way. It was emphasized that digital infrastructure in schools has developed faster than human capacity, and this has created a visible gap: devices, platforms, and equipment exist, but they are not being used to their full potential. One phrase that remained especially strong in the discussion was this: “We are not going to have children with digital competences as long as we do not have teachers with digital competences.”
No Prepared Children Without Prepared Teachers
Equally important, several participants pointed out that the problem is not only what we introduce into the curriculum, but how it is actually taught in the classroom. In the final interventions, the focus shifted very clearly from lists of subjects and content to methods, reflection, critical thinking, and applied pedagogy. In other words, it is no longer enough to say that media education, digital pedagogy, or key competences exist in policy documents. The real issue is how they actually transform the child’s experience in school.
Why Schools Cannot Carry This Responsibility Alone
Just as strong was the message that schools cannot carry this responsibility alone. The family was constantly mentioned as the first space where digital habits are formed, but also as one of the most vulnerable links in this ecosystem. Participants spoke openly about parents who believe a child is “safe” as long as they are at home with a phone in hand, about the lack of parental controls, or about the false impression that online exposure is harmless if it does not immediately produce visible problems.
The Family Factor, Safety Starts at Home
One teacher shared that, in a middle school classroom, students perceived the phone as their “safety element,” and being without it caused real anxiety. In the same direction, a voice from the non-formal education field observed that intervention in third or fourth grade is already too late for some children, because by then they have already developed strong digital habits. One student offered perhaps one of the most balanced conclusions of the day, explaining that in his case what worked was not harsh restrictions, but clear priorities and constant communication with his parents. Asked what had helped him the most, he spoke about the importance of a relationship in which his parents “managed to become two experts in my own field,” meaning in his own life. From this perspective, the round table sent a very clear message: educating parents is not a secondary issue, but a real condition for children’s safety.
Regulation Matters, But It Is Not Enough
On the regulatory side, the discussion was one of the most nuanced. Existing obligations for platforms were presented, especially those stemming from the European regulation on digital services, as well as the investigations already opened regarding the protection of minors, addictive design, and safety on large platforms. At the same time, participants discussed the legislative proposals currently being developed in Romania, the difficulties of implementation, and the risks of simplistic measures. “I don’t think regulation will solve even half of the problem,” said one participant from the legislative field, while another warned that certain bans “will look very good in a photo,” but will produce limited or even nonexistent results.
Regulation Matters, But It Is Not Enough
The conversation touched on the difficulties of real age verification, the lack of sufficiently robust public digital infrastructure, the unclear definition of harmful content, and the tendency of institutions to pass responsibility from one to another. From here emerged one of the strongest ideas of the discussion: before adopting politically visible measures, we need solutions that are implementable, proportionate, and aligned with technical, social, and legal reality.
The Role of Platforms, Tech Companies, and Digital Design
The conversation gained even more depth when voices from the technology sector, the software industry, and platforms joined in. Representatives of this sector supported the need for stronger protections for minors, but also warned that strict and centralized identity verification can create other serious problems, from security and privacy risks to the exclusion of certain categories of users. The idea of risk-based approaches was promoted, where the strictest measures should apply to high-risk services rather than to all digital tools across the board. In the same spirit, there was strong emphasis on more accessible parental control tools, responsible design, and technical solutions that do not turn platforms into the “internet police,” while also not leaving the entire burden on families and schools.
From Risk to Opportunity, Reimagining Technology in Education
Another important point was that digital should not be seen only as a threat, but also as an opportunity. Rather than excluding technology from educational settings, several speakers argued that it should be redirected toward meaningful purposes: team projects, learning missions, creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, and the development of real competences for the future.
Why Young People Must Be Part of the Conversation
One particularly valuable moment of the debate came when the perspectives of young people and of organizations working directly with them were brought to the center. It was explicitly said that adults often talk about what children are experiencing without having them sufficiently present in the conversation. One participant formulated perhaps the most powerful challenge of the day: if we do not find the perfect solution immediately, what do young people do in the meantime, and what can we learn from their instincts for adaptation? From this perspective came some of the clearest calls for collaboration, for genuinely consulting children and adolescents, and for building a shared language among all the actors involved.
Adelina Dragomir’s Key Message, Start Earlier and Teach Differently
Adelina Dragomir insisted that digital citizenship education starts far too late and that methods matter just as much as messages. She spoke about the need for an approach based on experience, comparison, reflection, and the ability to react in situations of online abuse, rather than merely transmitting abstract information. She also highlighted one of the important lessons from the field: without prepared adults, there can be no prepared children, and without a shared language between schools, parents, organizations, and decision-makers, children receive contradictory messages and end up alone in a space that adults claim to control, but often do not understand well enough.
Online Safety and the Structural Problems Behind It
There were also interventions that widened the frame and moved the discussion beyond immediate safety toward the social and political effects of a generation that is overexposed, tired, polarized, and increasingly disconnected from reality. People spoke about insufficient sleep, chronic fatigue among adolescents, social isolation, radicalization, poverty, functional illiteracy, and the lack of community infrastructure that could offer real alternatives to time spent online. In this sense, some participants reminded the room that the issue of online safety cannot be separated from the structural problems of society.
Community Spaces, Parents, and the Missing Offline Alternatives
A closed library, the lack of community centers, the absence of safe spaces for children and young people, the lack of a sufficiently flexible education system, or the lack of coherent investment in human resources all indirectly become factors that push children even further into the digital environment as their only space of refuge, belonging, or meaning. That is why the round table did not treat technology as an isolated problem, but as a mirror that brings older and deeper fragilities to the surface.
What the Round Table Suggested for the Future
Looking ahead, the discussion outlined several directions for action that came up consistently, even if they were phrased differently. The first is the need to lower the age at which digital and media education begin, in ways adapted to children’s development. The second is serious and continuous investment in teachers, not just in equipment, because without trained, reflective teachers who are able to engage with the digital realities of their students, any strategy remains on paper. The third is supporting parents and communities, so that the conversation about online safety does not remain trapped within schools or institutions. To these are added three other very clear directions: more careful regulation of addictive design and algorithms that encourage compulsive behavior, the development of credible technical mechanisms for age estimation or verification, and the creation of relevant, attractive, and accessible offline alternatives for children and adolescents. Behind all these ideas remained one strong conclusion: there is no single, fast, and perfect solution, but there is a shared responsibility to act more intelligently, more coherently, and earlier.
From Control to Preparation, A Different Way Forward
The Digital Safe, Future Ready round table did not produce a simple list of conclusions, nor did it aim to. Instead, it achieved something perhaps more important: it showed that children’s online safety cannot be reduced to panic, to prohibition, or to uncritical technological optimism. It requires lucidity, collaboration, and a shift in focus from total control to real preparation. Perhaps one of the most relevant ideas of the entire discussion was this: children should not be kept out of the digital world at all costs, but helped to become independent navigators in a world that will remain digital. And for that to happen, adults must first learn to understand it themselves.