1. Recognising that education alone isn’t enough
Stakeholder interviews and workshops confirmed that education alone had limited impact potential, and that others were already doing similar work. CyberSafeKids needed to leverage change at a systemic level.
This honest assessment freed them to ask a bigger question: where can we create the most impact, even if it means fundamentally changing what we do?
2. Mapping the ecosystem and understanding their unique position
Assessing the landscape of organisations working on related issues revealed their competitive advantage: trusted research into children’s digital lives, established credibility with media and policymakers, and the independence to speak boldly without industry or government constraints.
This clarity pointed toward a new role: convener and catalyst rather than service provider, with the credibility to mobilise others and influence systems.
3. Defining success at both individual and societal levels
CyberSafeKids defined success across multiple levels:
- Children demonstrating positive digital behaviour and accessing safe online environments
- Parents as digitally literate, confident role models and advocates for all children
- Policymakers implementing adequate safeguards
- Societal norms where healthy online habits are expected and digital literacy is embedded in curriculum
This multi-level vision made clear that scaling impact required working through parents and policymakers, not just with children directly.
4. Testing assumptions about parent mobilisation
In the process of working out how best to engage parents, CyberSafeKids tested key assumptions: do sign-ups convert to participation? Do parents act after one interaction? These focused tests built confidence while surfacing areas to improve.
This discipline prevented scaling something that wouldn’t work, and identified the real bottlenecks to address.
5. Making hard choices about what to stop
The new focus meant stopping active trainer recruitment and large-scale delivery, reducing school surveys, and rethinking parent webinars. It also meant continuing the Trends & Usage Report while changing how findings were collected, and redefining that engagement with schools was mainly for research, not delivery.
These decisions freed up resources for higher-leverage work: building parent movements, developing advocacy strategy, and leaning into being Ireland’s national voice on children’s online safety.
6. Building the organisational capacity for the new strategy
CyberSafeKids identified the skills their evolved role required: market research, community and volunteer mobilisation, lobbying expertise, brand strategy, and a new CRM system. They mapped existing capabilities and gaps, developed new roles, and planned the infrastructure the strategy demanded.
This groundwork ensured they weren’t just changing strategy on paper, but building the capacity to execute it.
