Better Internet for Kids

The Digital Services Act aims to create a safer digital space where the fundamental rights of users are protected. Under Art 28,  providers of online platforms accessible to minors must put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors, on their service. The Digital Services Act imposes on all providers of digital services obligations to protect minors from illegal content online. They must write their terms and conditions in a way that children can understand.

The GDPR says that children’s personal data need specific protection, as children may be less aware of their rights, and of what can happen if a company uses their personal data, especially for advertising or proposing content. Information about data processing should be clear and easy for a child to understand. Everyone has the right to be forgotten, under certain conditions. That means a user can ask a company to remove his/her personal data, especially when if (s)he agreed to this as a child.

This law means that non-food products sold in the EU must be safe. Countries can quickly alert each other about dangerous products.

In 2021, the European Commission proposed an update to strengthen existing rules. The proposal mentions the risks of products not made for children but that look like something appealing to children or meant for children – like sweets or toys. Safety would also apply to products based on new technologies like Artificial Intelligence that can affect people’s mental health and children’s healthy development.

The Directive regulates business practices that are unfair, misleading or aggressive. It aims to increase consumers’ trust and confidence while shopping offline and online. It explicitly says that children cannot be encouraged directly to buy things or persuade their parents or other adults to buy advertised products for them (‘pester power’). Such encouragement is an unfair commercial practice in all cases. In order to help businesses comply, the European Commission published guidelines in 2021. The guidelines have specific sections on social media marketing, and on influencers.

The Framework Decision aims to guarantee that major forms of racism and xenophobia are punishable as crimes in the EU. In particular, Member States are obliged to make it a crime to publicly provoke violence or hate against a person or group of persons because of their race, colour, religion, descent or national or ethnic origin (hate speech). The Framework Decision also makes courts consider any racist and xenophobic motive when they decide about the punishment (hate crime).

Children can be the target of hate speech or hate crimes, both on-line and off-line.

The AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence) provides AI developers and deployers with clear requirements and obligations regarding specific uses of AI. At the same time, the regulation seeks to reduce administrative and financial burdens for business, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The purpose of this Directive is to provide a comprehensive framework to effectively prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence throughout the Union. It does so by strengthening and introducing measures in relation to the following areas: the definition of relevant criminal offences and penalties, the protection of victims and access to justice, victim support, enhanced data collection, prevention, coordination and cooperation.

In June 2021 the Commission adopted a proposal for a European Digital Identity. EU citizens and residents should have a right to a European Digital Identity wallet that is safe, free, convenient to use, and protects personal data. This would apply to children according to national law, and also to businesses. The wallet will allow a child e.g. to prove his or her age without revealing other personal data. It gives users control over what data they want to share about themselves, and with whom.

The Digital Decade policy programme 2030 sets up an annual cooperation cycle to achieve the common objectives and targets. This governance framework is based on an annual cooperation mechanism involving the Commission and Member States.

The cooperation mechanism consists of:

The vision of BIK+ strategy is for age-appropriate digital services, with every child in Europe protected, empowered and respected online, and no one left behind.

BIK+, a flagship initiative of the European Year of Youth 2022, proposes actions around three pillars: