Cyberbullying should be criminalised at EU level to protect children and young people, Suncana Glavak, a Croatian member of the European Parliament, said at a conference held in Zagreb on Tuesday.

A survey shows that one in three children has an online presence and 50% have said that they have experienced some form of cyberbullying, Glavak’s office said in a statement, with the MEP calling for support to create a safer online environment for all, notably the most vulnerable groups.

The conference, organised by Glavak, was also attended by Jackie Fox of Ireland who initiated the so-called Coco’s Law, whereby Ireland criminalised online violence. Her daughter Nicole “Coco” Fox committed suicide due to cyberbullying.

The law envisages prison sentences of up to seven years for the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, and it also envisages penalties for harmful communication aimed at harassment.

Fox shared her story with participants in the conference, encouraging them to get involved in the fight against cyberbullying, noting that no life should be lost due to cyberbullying.

Davorka Martinjak, an advisor to Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic and participant in the conference, said that in 2022 more than 9,000 offences were committed harming children and families, including 1,864 cybercrimes.

The head of the Zagreb Child and Youth Protection Centre, Vanja Slijepcevic-Saftic, called for defining prevention strategies and raising public awareness of the problem to make “the lives of children and young people safer so they can fully develop their potential in a safe and supporting environment.”

Robert Tomljenovic, vice president of the Electronic Media Council, said one of the ways to prevent and combat online violence was a systematic development of media as well as emotional literacy as well as empathy from the early age.

The conference was also attended by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s envoy, the State Secretary at the Central State Office for Digital Society Development, Bernard Grsic.

The European People’s Party (EPP) Group in the European Parliament wants online violence to be treated as a criminal offence across the EU to make sure all citizens enjoy the same level of protection, and a law to that effect would be the first law at EU level in the field of combating online violence, Glavak’s office said in the statement.