Cultivating positive Online gender Equality narratives among EU adolescents

forthcoming

"EU-COE is a transnational project promoted by a consortium of nine partners from seven EU Member States — Spain, Lithuania, Cyprus, Portugal, Poland, Italy, and Romania — bringing together universities, NGOs, associations, municipalities, and a company. This diverse partnership ensures a multidisciplinary approach, combining expertise in education, youth engagement, research, and public administration. By responding directly to the objectives of the Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025 and Directive (EU) 2024/1385, EU-COE tackles the spread of gender-based hate speech in the digital environment, with a particular focus on cyber-violence emerging from communities such as the ""manosphere"". Key activities include training sessions and participatory laboratories with adolescents, sustained by participatory research and analysis that incorporate the perspectives of young people, educators, and families. Adopting an innovative, educational, and participatory approach, EU-COE combines critical media literacy, gender equality promotion, and prevention of digital violence. The initiative will develop transferable educational tools, including a short movie co-created with young people, and promote positive male empowerment as a response to misogynistic narratives. EU-COE also aims to strengthen cooperation between consortium partners for long-term impact, to deliver co-created, user-friendly, and creative outputs, such as the short movie among others, and to promote the exchange of good practices and the building of an active European community against gender-based cyber-violence, thus strengthening equality policies, digital citizenship, and social cohesion at European level."