Commission gathers good practices to combat online harm for minors

The Commission held a workshop to collect input for the guidelines on protection of minors under the Digital Services Act.

On 4 October, the Commission held a multi-stakeholder workshop to collect input for the guidelines on protection of minors under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The guidelines will assist providers of online platforms to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors.

The expert workshop gathered around 140 participants representing a broad range of views and expertise, including Digital Services Coordinators and other national competent authorities, civil society organisations, designated very large online platforms and search engines as well as smaller online platforms, industry associations, academics, Safer Internet Centres and Better Internet for Kids Youth Ambassadors. The workshop complements the recent call for evidence on the guidelines on the protection of minors that collected 174 contributions.

The workshop featured a series of scenarios authored by the BIK+ Youth Ambassadors and by representatives of the Marie Collins and Molly Rose Foundations, which support victims of child sexual abuse, self-harm and suicide.

The scenarios focused on a wide range of topics, including access to age-inappropriate content, algorithms fostering addictive behaviour, cyberbullying, sexual harassment, so-called 'sextortion', the proliferation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), promotion of self-harm and suicide content and conduct, scams, identity theft, and phishing.

Based on these real-life scenarios, participants identified examples of existing or desired good practices and recommendations to effectively mitigate online risks for minors while safeguarding the rights of the child. The discussion covered issues related to child-friendly reporting mechanisms, parental controls, the adaptation of algorithmic systems and recommender systems, the impact of AI-generated images, safety and privacy default settings, and content moderation.

Theinput from the workshop will feed into the drafting of the guidelines for protection of minors under article 28 of the DSA. The Commission aims to submit this draft for public consultation at the beginning of next year, with plans for adoption later in 2025.

The protection of minors is a key priority for the Commission. Our longstanding commitment to support, empower, and respect children online is reflected in the Better Internet for Kids strategy and in the DSA. The Commission also plans to launch an EU-wide inquiry on the broader impacts of social media on the well-being of young people, and an action plan to tackle cyberbullying.

Related topics