The Children are alright, also in the digital environment: this must be the immediate objective of the policy measures designed to implement the recommendations of the European Special Panel on Child Online Safety. This sets the guiding principle for policy-making; these decisions must be taken in the best interests of the child, as stipulated in Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Digital Services Act provides the legal basis: firstly, because it is fully harmonising and thus places the regulation of the services covered by it and the enforcement of this legal framework entirely in the hands of the European Commission. Consequently – as the report correctly notes – unilateral national measures to regulate providers are not permitted. Notwithstanding this, however, Member States could legislate to determine whether, and if so from what age, children and young people are permitted to use certain services, and what supervisory obligations this entails for those responsible for their upbringing. The prospects of success for such unilateral national measures appear slim – as the example of Australia shows. Furthermore, this would once again result in a patchwork of differing age limits, which is not only easy to circumvent but also undermines the European ideal.
Secondly, in the debate on a so-called social media ban, the report bases its recommendations on a broad understanding of the services covered by the definition of ‘Social Media+’; in accordance with Article 28(1) of the DSA, a high level of privacy, protection and security is mandatory for these services, provided they are accessible to minors. In this respect, the recommendations bear a clear resemblance to the option formulated as ‘Alternative 2’ in the recommendations of the German Expert Commission: service- and function-specific restrictions on access based on a risk assessment of the respective service, rather than a blanket age limit applicable across all services. With regard to the implementation of a risk-based approach, the report refers to the guidelines under Article 28(4) of the DSA, the implementation of which is proposed by members of the Special Panel as an obligation for providers. The appeal of these guidelines lies not only in the valuable guidance they provide to platform and service providers, but also in the process by which they were developed, in which the community, including young people, was extensively involved. Notwithstanding the voluntary measures taken by service providers to date, the guidelines could become significantly more important if their application were made mandatory, thereby creating a range of digital services suitable for minors. Whether this digital environment would still be subject to the recommended age limit of 13 years for using them unsupervised depends on the extent to which providers consistently implement the ‘safety-by-design’ principle, which is also recommended.
The supervised use of services classified under the ‘Social Media +’ category, as proposed by experts for the 3 to 13-year-old age group, comes with certain prerequisites. A strong call for the empowerment of parents and carers, as well as those in children’s social circles who can offer them support is therefore justified. Nevertheless, it must be borne in mind that not all families will be able or willing to do this. Further measures will therefore be required to ensure the protection, provision and participation of children considered to be particularly vulnerable.
Age verification should be used wherever existing risks cannot be mitigated by less restrictive measures. The European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI-Wallet), which is to be introduced on a mandatory basis in Member States from 2 January 2027, is regarded as the preferred instrument of choice. Designed to minimise data collection and preserve anonymity, it will provide platforms only with the information necessary to decide on access to content and the use of specific age-appropriate features.
The recommendations put forward by the European Special Panel, like those of the German Expert Commission, are characterised by a clear focus on children’s rights. The benefits of using digital media for children’s healthy upbringing and their development into competent and independent individuals are explicitly emphasised by the experts.
The Capability Approach, developed by the economist and philosopher Amartya Sen, states that society must create the conditions necessary for children to develop and realise their individual capabilities. It is now the responsibility of political decision-makers at European and national level to ensure, through decisions to implement the experts’ recommendations, that this approach is also realised in the digital environment. The prospects are good, as children’s rights and needs have never before been the centrepiece of political attention as today.
The complete list auf the 56 recommendations from the European Special Panel is to be found here: The report by the co-chairs of the Special Committee on Child Safety Online: Child Safety Online: Childrens Rights Digital.