Please note that speakers' biographies will be added on a regular basis
as soon as speakers are confirmed, but may still be subject to change.
For more information on the agenda, please check the Agenda tab.
Keynote speaker: Jochen Peter
Jochen Peter is a Full Professor at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Having published more than 100 academic articles and book chapters, he has been extensively studying how young people use new communication technologies. Specifically, Jochen has focused on the socio-emotional and psychological consequences that new communication technologies, as well as the access various types of mediated content, have for young people. Given an increasing trend in communication technologies toward automated communication, he has recently started a project on children and social robots. The project, which is funded by the European Research Council (ERC), tries to find out what one of the most significant current technological advancements – robots that are made for social interaction – means for children’s cognitive, emotional and social development. In his talk, Jochen will outline the driving forces behind an emerging robotification of childhood and sketch potential consequences for children’s development.Dr Alyssa Alcorn
Dr Alyssa Alcorn is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE) within the UCL Institute of Education, London. Currently, she works on the DE-ENIGMA Horizon 2020 project on social robots as teaching tools for autism (http://de-enigma.eu/). Alyssa has specialised in designing and evaluating technologies to support and teach young children on the autism spectrum, with a particular focus on social communication and on school settings. She has been active across the autism and technology community, and was invited as the 2017 keynote speaker for the UK National Autistic Society’s Autism and Technology Conference. She completed her PhD in Human-Computer Interaction and MSc Cognitive Science at the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics (UK).Niels-Christian Bilenberg
Niels-Christian Bilenberg is the senior coordinator of the Danish helpline, Centre for Digital Youth Care, where he has had pedagogical responsibility for counselling services for vulnerable children and adolescents on the online platforms cyberhus.dk, netstof.dk and mitassist.dk since 2007. He also works as an external consultant, offering training of staff and ongoing sparring to municipal, governmental and non-governmental organisations on various aspects of online counselling, with a special focus on vulnerable children and young people. Niels-Christian studied education and social work and, prior to joining Digital Youth Care, worked with children and adolescents in schools.
Beckie J. Brown
Beckie J. Brown is a 24-year-old freelance artist, film-maker and vlogger from the United Kingdom. Having completed a film course at the NY Film Academy in 2012, she graduated with a First-Class Honours Degree in Film-Making from the Met Film School in 2015. As a YouTube partner, at age 18, she was awarded the “Mind Media Digital Speaking Out Award” for her autobiographical video diaries on meeting the challenge of Trichotillomania. Beckie’s online videos and postings now span over ten years. They have been seen by millions of people worldwide, on different platforms across digital media, leading to articles in magazines, newspapers, and interview spots, both on ITV’s Good Morning and ABC’s Good Morning America. Beckie is respected for her accessibility, honesty, and creativity covering a wide range of topical issues. She has also attended and supported international conferences on Trichotillomania and wellbeing, e.g., TLC in San Francisco, and EMEA 2017 in Dublin.Claire Bury
Claire Bury is currently Deputy Director General in DG CONNECT with responsibility for regulatory aspects of the Digital Single Market. She is also a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. She was previously Director of Modernisation of the Single Market in Directorate General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Before that, she was Head of Unit for Company Law, Corporate Governance and Financial Crime in Directorate General Internal Market and Services, and Deputy Head of Cabinet to Internal Market Commissioners Charlie McCreevy and Frits Bolkestein. An English barrister by training, she worked in the Commission's Legal Service and, before coming to Brussels, in the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Professor Ernesto Caffo
Professor Ernesto Caffo is Founder and President of SOS Il Telefono Azzurro Onlus and Foundation Child, and Chair Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Modena. He is also currently a board member of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) and of Missing Children Europe. In addition, he is the author of several books and articles on child psychiatry, child abuse and children’s rights.Mark D. Cole
Mark D. Cole is Professor for Media and Telecommunication Law at the University of Luxembourg, Course Director for the Master in Space, Communication and Media Law (LL.M.) and Faculty Member of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT). Since July 2014, he has held an additional position as Director for Academic Affairs at the Institute of European Media Law (EMR, Saarbrücken/Berlin/Brussels). Mark specialises in European and Comparative Media Law, covering the whole range of the regulatory framework for both traditional mass media as well as the law of the new information technologies which includes data protection and intellectual property law. He studied law and political science and holds a doctorate from the Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz (2003) where he was research assistant from 1999 to 2002 and again from 2005 to 2007 at the Chair in Public Law, International and European Law, Media Law. Additionally, he holds both German State Examinations in Law. He gained practical experience in media law at the DG Competition of the European Commission, a law office specialising in Intellectual Property Law and the legal department of a television broadcasting company. He is currently working on various publications on the topics of the Audio-Visual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).Silvia Costa MEP
Silvia Costa is currently S&D Group Coordinator Committee on Culture and education of the European Parliament. She has been Chair of the Committee on Culture and education of the European Parliament (2014-2016) and rapporteur for the European Parliament of the Creative Europe Programme 2014-2020. She has been Lazio regional councillor responsible for education, educational rights and training (2005-2009); member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies for three parliamentary terms; member of the Committee on internal affairs, the Committee on culture, science and education and the Committee on general guidance and monitoring of radio and television services (1985-1993), and State secretary at the Ministry for universities, scientific research and technology (1993-1994). Silvia has been chair of the European advisory committee on equal opportunities during the 1996 Italian Presidency of the EU and head of the EU delegation to the annual session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (1996). She is co-founder of the “Telefono Azzurro” NGO for missing children; member of the board of management of the Donne in Musica Foundation (2002-2005), and President of the Academy of Fine Arts, Rome (1995-2005).Patrick Geary
Patrick Geary is a children's rights and business specialist at the UNICEF headquarters in Geneva, where he focuses on legal and public policy advocacy. He has been an international children’s rights advocate for over a decade, and has worked for and with a wide range of companies, government institutions and civil society organisations. Patrick is also the managing editor of publications on children's rights and business in a digital world, which include in-depth explorations of privacy and data collection, freedom of expression and the right to information, and non-discriminatory access and digital literacy.
Arda Gerkens
Arda Gerkens is Managing Director at the Expertisebureau Online Childabuse (the Dutch hotline) and Member of the Dutch Senate. She is also the chairwoman of the Commission Economical Affairs of the Senate. In May 2016, she became President of INHOPE, the member organisation for all hotlines in the world. Arda was a Member of Parliament from 2002 to 2010 for the Socialist Party. During these years, she was spokeswoman on IT-related issues, justice, economy, infrastructure and was a Vice-President of the Parliament. In Senate, she is spokeswoman on education, culture, science, economic affairs and IT-related issues, and she is Group Vice Chairman of her party. Arda has two children and lives in Haarlem, The Netherlands.
Simone van der Hof
Simone van der Hof is Director of the Center for Law and Digital Technologies (eLaw) at Leiden Law School and Programme Director of the Advanced Studies Programme in Law and Digital Technologies. She coordinates and teaches various courses, including Regulating Online Child Safety (Master Youth Law), Digital Child Rights (Advanced Master Law and Digital Technologies), and The Rights of the Child in the Digital World (Advanced Master International Children's Rights). Simone’s particular academic interest is in the field of online privacy, digital child rights and regulation of online child safety. Last year she was involved in the Sweetie 2.0 project on online webcam child sex abuse, commissioned by the children’s rights organisation, Terre des Hommes. Currently, she is participating in a project on the protection of personal data of Dutch citizens commissioned by the WODC (Research and Documentation Centre), in the NWO/MVI SCALES project on big data and privacy, and the RAAK Gamechangers project on ethics by design in health games for children. Alongside coordinating or participating in numerous other projects, Simone is part of the EU Kids Online III Dutch research team and a member of the NICAM complaints committee dealing with complaints on age classification for television and movies (De Kijkwijzer).Hedwig de Jager
Hedwig de Jager is a Dutch police officer who is seconded to the Crimes Against Children Unit at the INTERPOL General Secretariat. Hedwig graduated from university with a Master’s Degree in Spatial Planning and worked for an architecture bureau before joining the Dutch Police. While working for the Dutch Police, she finished her Master of Criminal Investigation. She joined the specialised Child Abuse Material team in the Netherlands in 2012, after working for a couple of years for the General Crimes unit, dealing with a variety of cases. Hedwig started working as a Criminal Intelligence Officer for the Crimes Against Children Unit at INTERPOL in January 2016 and mainly works on victim identification. She developed and delivered victim identification trainings and worked with the material which is provided by INHOPE through ICCAM. She is also an ICSE (International Child Sexual Exploitation) Database trainer and works on the maintenance and development of the ICSE database.Gail Kent
Gail Kent is one of the most senior British officials in the European Commission in Luxembourg. She is Director of Data in one of the largest DGs and was also throughout 2016 the acting Deputy DG. Her current responsibilities include both policy and programme management in the fields of Data Economy, promoting cultural heritage and removing digital barriers. She has more than 20 years of high level experience of managing large budgets, finance, compliance and HR in a multi-lingual, multicultural highly political environment. Comfortable with senior levels in government, public sector and NGOs she has sound judgment, budgetary acumen and good political skills. Outside of her main job, she has presided a staff Committee with members from several EU institutions looking at childcare provision for staff's children. She also has presided several recruitment competitions and oversees middle management post procedures in other DGs. Nadia Kutscher
Nadia Kutscher is Professor for Youth Welfare and Social Work at the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation at the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Cologne. She studied social work in Munich and educational science in Bielefeld and has worked as a Professor for Social Work and Early Childhood Education at the Catholic University of Applied Science in Aachen and Cologne, and as a Professor for Social Work and Ethics at the University of Vechta. She was a member of the expert commission for the 14th Child and Youth Report of the German Federal Government and was a member of the Federal Youth Board (Bundesjugendkuratorium), an independent panel of experts who advise the federal government in matters of child and youth welfare, and also on current policy issues concerning children and youth. Her research interests are the digitalisation of society and its implications for children, youth and family, forced migration and social work. Other focal points of her work are child and youth welfare, ethical issues of social work, and social inequality and education.Fred Langford
Fred Langford joined the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in December 2004 and is the Deputy CEO. He has over 25 years’ experience in the internet industry gained through positions with internet service providers, the Ministry of Defence and the US Air Force prior to joining the IWF. Fred is Chair of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) Technical Working Group, a member of the National Crime Agency (NCA) Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Command Prevent Board, a member of The Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative (CCI) Steering Committee, Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) Project Board and the Interpol STOPCAM group. In addition, he is an expert advisor to a variety of industry, governments, The Commonwealth, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), police, the European Commission (EC) and NGOs. Fred has been instrumental in the design and delivery of IWF services to industry that are utilised globally to ensure access to illegal child sexual abuse material (CSAM) is disrupted and minimised. He is a Trustee of The Marie Collins Foundation (MCF), a Certified Information Security Professional (CISSP), Chartered Director (ChDir) and Fellow of the Institute of Directors (FIoD).
David Martin Ruiz
David Martin Ruiz is a Senior Legal Officer at BEUC, the European Consumer Organisation. BEUC represents 41 independent national consumer associations from 31 European countries. David is part of BEUC’s Digital Team, where he focuses on privacy, data protection, copyright and competition. He has been working on digital and ICT issues since 2006. Prior to joining BEUC in May 2015, David worked at the public affairs consultancy Burson-Marsteller and the EU Regional Office of Murcia in Brussels. A Spanish national, David studied Law at the University of Murcia (Spain) and holds a Master’s Degree in European Law from the University of Luxembourg, as well as a Postgraduate Degree on Economic and Legal EU Studies from the Collège Miguel Servet/Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.Abhilash Nair
Abhilash Nair is Senior Lecturer in Internet Law at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. He has published widely on internet law and regulation, is a regular speaker at international conferences, and has advised various organisations on issues related to online child safety and cybercrime. His research focuses on the issue of regulating internet pornography generally and the protection of children in this context. Abhilash's book titled “Regulation of Internet Pornography: Issues and Challenges” is due to be published by Routledge soon. He is co-editor of the leading IT law journal, the European Journal of Law and Technology, and also serves on the editorial board of the International Review of Law, Computers and Technology and the European Journal of Current Legal Issues. Abhilash is a member of the Technology Law and Practice Committee of the Law Society of Scotland.
Abhilash Nair is Senior Lecturer in Internet Law at Aston University, Birmingham, UK. He has published widely on internet law and regulation, is a regular speaker at international conferences, and has advised various organisations on issues related to online child safety and cybercrime. His research focuses on the issue of regulating internet pornography generally and the protection of children in this context. Abhilash's book titled “Regulation of Internet Pornography: Issues and Challenges” is due to be published by Routledge soon. He is co-editor of the leading IT law journal, the European Journal of Law and Technology, and also serves on the editorial board of the International Review of Law, Computers and Technology and the European Journal of Current Legal Issues. Abhilash is a member of the Technology Law and Practice Committee of the Law Society of Scotland.Dr Victoria Nash
Dr Victoria Nash is the Deputy Director and Senior Policy Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII). In the latter role, she is responsible for leading the department’s engagement in digital policy matters. Her particular research interests draw on her background as a political theorist, and concern the theoretical and practical interpretation of fundamental liberal values in the internet era. Recent projects have included efforts to map the legal and regulatory trends shaping freedom of expression online for UNESCO, and an analysis of age verification policies as a tool for balancing the interests of children and adults online. She is currently principal investigator (PI) of a project examining the concept of the “algorithmic child” and the data risks posed to children by connected toys and the Internet of Things. She holds several digital policy advisory roles, and is also Course Director for the OII Summer Doctoral Programme.Oscar Pettersson
Oscar Pettersson has a passion in businesses that do the right thing, by leveraging hi-tech solutions to provide a safer society. Oscar is the Channel Manager for NetClean (part of the Safer Society Group) and plays an important part in growing a community of partners in order to make a difference, and ultimately to protect children and make a positive societal impact. In this role, Oscar has the opportunity to work with a network of important partners that together provide global impact. Oscar has over 17 years’ experience in the IT industry and a Master of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law. Catherine Van Reeth
Catherine Van Reeth is Director General of Toy Industries of Europe (TIE). At the heart of TIE’s mission is making sure children have fun and safe toys to play with. Since joining TIE in 2009, Catherine has seen some big changes in how kids play, with digital platforms becoming increasingly important in their play patterns. This has led to TIE’s traditional focus expanding to make sure that the connected-play experiences its members create for children are appropriate, safe and secure too. Catherine has a passion for language: her first degree in English and Dutch Literature and Linguistics took her from the University of Leuven in Belgium to Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Her appreciation of cross-border cooperation led her to study two Masters in International Relations. Catherine then put her theory into practice, first as a Commission Blue Book Stagiaire, before becoming an expert in EU consumer affairs. As a child, Catherine loved imaginative home-related play – not just playing house, but building them too! Anna Rywczyńska
Anna Rywczyńska is Coordinator of the Polish Safer Internet Centre (SIC) and Manager of the NASK National Research Institute's Social Projects Team. An expert in the field of children and youth’s safe use of online content and new media, Anna is also Co-founder and Chair of the international conference “Keeping Children and Young People Safe Online”. She is an author and co-author of various publications and educational tools and a member of international working groups, including those operating under ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) and ECSO (European Cyber Security Organisation).Anne Mette Thorhauge
Anne Mette Thorhauge is Chair of the Danish Media Council for Children and Young People and Associate Professor in media studies at the University of Copenhagen. Her empirical research is centred on digital communication technologies in everyday life. As part of her work in the Media Council, she takes part in initiatives to strengthen children’s and young people’s literacy and competencies in a society increasingly permeated by digital technologies. This includes a sustained focus on children as citizens with basic democratic rights, as established by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).Emil Valdelin
As EU Affairs Policy Manager, Emil Valdelin is responsible for representing Facebook towards the European Institutions. His remit includes developing public policy positions with other team members at Facebook and advising Facebook teams on public policy matters to guide development of products, services and policies. Before joining Facebook in 2014, Emil spent the previous 12 years in Brussels working for, among others, the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and Grayling, an EU government relations, public affairs and communications consultancy.
