On 11–12 June 2026, the PARTICIPATE final conference brought researchers, practitioners, parents, educators, and policy voices together at the Thon Hotel in Brussels for two days of research, dialogue, practical tools, and reflection on bullying, cyberbullying, families, schools, and digital environments.
The conference marked an important milestone for the PARTICIPATE project, Parents and Technology in Cyberbullying: Intervention and Prevention for Future Experts. Under the theme “Research meets practice”, the event did more than present project results. It created a space where evidence, field experience, practical resources, and policy thinking could meet around a shared purpose: helping children grow up in safer, more supportive communities, both online and offline.
Bullying and cyberbullying prevention cannot be reduced to one simple answer. Children’s lives unfold across classrooms, homes, peer groups, social media platforms, gaming spaces, and wider communities. The PARTICIPATE final conference reflected this complexity. It showed that meaningful prevention requires cooperation between families, schools, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. It also showed that parents are not peripheral actors in this work. They are central.
The first day focused on practice, toolkits, and policy dialogue. After the welcome and introduction by Prof. Debbie Ging of Dublin City University, participants were introduced to practical resources developed through the project for parents and practitioners. These included From Bystanders to Leaders: Parents in (Cyber)Bullying Advocacy, resources on Enhancing School-Parent Collaboration against (Cyber)Bullying, and a Digital Literacy Toolkit for Parents.
This practical emphasis was one of the strongest messages of the conference. Research matters deeply, but it becomes truly powerful when it reaches the people who need it. Parents need tools that help them recognise warning signs, respond to children with calm and confidence, communicate effectively with schools, and understand the digital environments in which children spend so much of their time. Schools need resources that support genuine family engagement instead of occasional, crisis-driven communication. Practitioners need evidence-informed guidance that can be used in real situations, not only discussed in academic spaces.
The policy session on the first day added another essential layer. PARTICIPATE research has direct implications for how institutions think about bullying and cyberbullying prevention. Prevention cannot depend only on individual courage or goodwill. It also needs systems that make collaboration possible, policies that support families and schools, and public conversations that take children’s digital lives seriously.
The second day turned towards research findings and community responses. Prof. Audrey Bryan of Dublin City University delivered the keynote, “Responsibility or Responsibilisation? A Social Cartography of Bullying in Algorithmic Times.” The title captured one of the most important tensions in contemporary debates on online safety: how to talk about responsibility without simply placing the burden on children, parents, or schools while ignoring the wider digital systems that shape behaviour.
Dr Frederikke Skanning Knage of Aarhus University then presented “Bullying, Marginalisation and Conflict Between Children”, helping to situate bullying within broader social dynamics. This was especially valuable because bullying is never just a matter of individual behaviour. It is also connected to belonging, exclusion, peer relations, group norms, and the ways children negotiate status and vulnerability.
Across the rest of the day, panels explored online bullying involvement and its consequences for young people, whole-community approaches, social interactions in the age of algorithms, and methodologies and lessons from the field. Together, these sessions highlighted the richness of the PARTICIPATE project. They also made one point very clear: cyberbullying prevention is not only a technological issue. It is a human, educational, social, and ethical challenge.
The conference was uplifting because it did not stop at describing problems. It pointed towards solutions. It recognised that families can be empowered, schools can build stronger partnerships, researchers can produce knowledge that travels beyond academia, and communities can become better prepared to respond when children are harmed.
It also celebrated the work of the PARTICIPATE doctoral candidates and project partners, whose research and collaboration helped produce new insights and practical tools for the future. Their contributions showed what European research can achieve when it is grounded in real needs and connected to those working directly with children and families.
As the PARTICIPATE final conference came to a close, its message was both hopeful and practical. Safer digital and school environments are not created by accident. They are built through evidence, cooperation, courage, and care.
The work continues, but Brussels offered a clear reminder of what is possible when research meets practice: better tools, stronger partnerships, and a shared commitment to protecting and empowering children.
