Expert Commission: The digital world must be child-friendly

• 06/24/2026

After nine months of intensive work, the expert commission on “Protecting Children and Young People in the Digital World”has presented its recommendations to Federal Minister for Youth Karin Prien. On 4 September 2025, she appointed eighteen experts from a range of professional fields and tasked them with developing a comprehensive strategy for the protection of young people online, including concrete recommendations for key stakeholders, such as the federal government, the Länder (federal states) and civil society. The expert commission was mandated, among other things,  to examine  the necessary requirements for a safe digital environment for children and young people, the health implications of media consumption, the promotion of media literacy among children, young people, parents and professionals, and the implications of artificial intelligence.

The federal states were also involved in the commission’s working process through a federal state advisory council. In addition, the Independent Federal Commissioner against Child Sexual Abuse (UBSKM), the Federal Government Commissioner for Addiction and Drug Issues, and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media took part in the expert commission’s deliberations as observers. Further stakeholders were given the opportunity to present their views and perspectives through submissions during six public hearings. Children and young people were also able to contribute their ideas, suggestions and opinions in workshops organised nationwide by the Digitale Chancen Foundation.

Following its deliberations, the Federal Government’s expert commission recommends 56 measures tailored to the developmental stages of young people and assigningresponsibilities to the relevant stakeholders. When presenting the recommendations for action, Prof. Dr Olaf Köller, co-chair of the commission, emphasised that “it is not the child who must adapt to the digital world, but the digital world that must adapt to the child”. The aim is to take children’s rights, needs and capabilities as the benchmark in order to create safe spaces and enable participation. Nadine Schön, co-chair of the expert commission, further explained that children’s rights to protection, provision and participation must all be given equal weight. Accordingly, the provision of knowledge, guidance and reliable support should help to empower young people to navigate the digital environment. To this end,  relevant skills should be taught in schools  specialist staff should be trained, and peer-to-peer approaches should be supported. 

Similarly, social media services must fulfil their responsibility to protect children and young people and ensure safe digital spaces. Risk-based approaches and guidelines for the safe design of services (‘safety-by-design’) should ensure that age-appropriate environments are available for young users. To enable participation, child-friendly services and safe spaces for experimentation should be provided. Counselling and support services, as well as an online children’s police station, are intended to offer  young people in critical situations opportunities to report incidents, file complaints and receive assistance.

With regard to a potential age limit for the use of social media, the expert commission can envisage two possible approaches. Policymakers could, for example, decide that social media services should, as a general rule, only be accessible to young people aged 13 and over. This minimum age should be verified in a reliable, secure and data-protection-compliant manner – preferably using the European digital wallet (EUDI wallet), which is expected to be available from 2027. According to Minister Prien, the government has already established the conditions for use by younger adolescents to use this tool as well. 

Alternatively, a decision could be made in favour of a risk-based approach, whereby specific features of the services would be subject to specific age limits and providers would be subject to stricter platform oversight. For both options, the expert commission recommends pursuing a European rather than a national approach for the time being, and refraining from introducing a general national ban. For so-called AI companions, the expert commission proposes, as an immediate measure, the introduction of a minimum age of 13. For school context, it recommends prohibiting the use of private devices up to and including the Year 7. From Year 8 onwards, it is proposed that usage policies be developed in consultation with the pupils.

Federal Minister for Youth Karin Prien gratefully received the report from the expert commission and highlighted, by way of example from the list of recommended measures, those which she considers to be implementable in the near future. Accordingly, she wishes to enshrine media education for children in family law and reform it within the context of parental responsibility in the Civil Code (Sections 1631 and 1626). She emphasizes that schools have a responsibility to prepare young people for the digital environment at an early stage, with media literacy and democracy education to be  considered in tandem. 

She also intends to advocate for the guidelines set out in Article 28(4) of the Digital Services Act (DSA) to be made mandatory for platform providers,as well as for simplifying and increasing transparency of reporting procedures for children. . Furthermore, she supports Europe-wide harmonisation with regard to  any potential age limits.Should agreements and their implementation not be reached in a timely manner  at European Union level, Minister Prien stated that she could envisage Germany taking unilateral action to ensure stronger protection for children and young people.

The 56 recommendations for action are listed below. These can be found in the report by the Expert Commission Entwicklung stärken, Verantwortung übernehmen. Für ein gutes Aufwachsen von Kindern und Jugendlichen in der digitalen Welt (Strengthening Development, Taking Responsibility: For Children and Young People to Thrive in the Digital World), alongside the relevant problem descriptions and intended outcomes. The report is available in German only.

1. Launch the national information campaign “We’re here for our children”
2. Provide reliable advice and support to families before the birth and during the first months of their child’s life
3. Expand, strengthen, and improve the accessibility of local centres offering media literacy programs
4. Raise awareness amongst parents and families regarding the responsible use of images of children and young people online
5. Develop inclusive parenting advice and education: practical for everyday life, multilingual and easily accessible
6. Facilitate dialogue amongst parents on media education and sustain effective projects
7. Establish a legal framework for parental media education under family law (Section 1631 of the German Civil Code (BGB), Section 1626 of the German Civil Code (BGB))
8. Make media education a compulsory component of the initial and continuing training for early childhood education professionals
9. Embed media education as a compulsory component of degree programmes and training courses in education and social work
10. Strengthen digital education in primary schools by integrating it into general studies lessons and after-school programmes
11. Strengthening children’s self-regulation skills within the family, in childcare settings and in school
12. “AI Seahorse” – promoting a basic understanding of AI (Note: In Germany, the “Seahorse” is a widely recognized certificate for basic swimming ability. This familiar concept is here applied to foundational AI Skills)
13. Promote algorithmic and AI literacy within educational contexts
14. Train designated contact persons with expertise in media education to adress pupils’ media-related concerns
15. Strengthen media literacy in lower and upper secondary education through peer-to-peer programmes
16. Regulate the private use of digital devices in schools
17. Embed media education and prevention from the outset: harnessing the potential of early intervention and childcare centres
18. Promote non-digital alternatives for leisure activities and voluntary engagement
19. Integrate  media literacy and democracy education
20. Create safe spaces for young people to recognise online phenomena and develop strategies for dealing with them
21. Centralise and make accessible age- and ability-appropriate approaches to promoting media and digital literacy
22. Strengthen the promotion of media literacy within the framework of educational child and youth protection
23. Expand media literacy in schools by strengthening school social work
24. Make the application of age ratings for games more flexible, including within youth welfare services
25. Develop a tiered prevention system with more tailored support for vulnerable children and young people
26. Introduce uniform standards for the diagnosis and treatment of behavioural addictions and addiction-like behaviour