2026 Winners

The Data Protection Commission of Ireland and France's Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés as public institutions responsible for protecting citizens' fundamental rights to data protection, identified a growing but overlooked societal issue: the digital footprint created for children through everyday parental sharing. “Pause Before You Post” reframed ‘sharenting' as a matter of children's rights and collective responsibility. Rather than informing, the campaign invited reflection—making visible the real-world consequences of seemingly harmless posts. A cinematic 40-second film depicted strangers revealing intimate knowledge about a child, built entirely from publicly shared content. Reaching over 120 million people and sparking a 200x increase in public conversation, it helped position responsible digital behaviour as an essential act of care.