Day Zero of the IGF 2025 startet with an opening key note by Karianne Tung, Minister of Digitalisation and Public Governance Norway stating that the Norwegian Government sees the IGF as a key part of the UN role in responsible human centric digital development. The questions addressed in the following five days are “about our lives and our common future”, she said, demanding to build “a digital world that works for everyone”. Her colleague Espen Barth Eide, Minister of Foreign Affairs called the Internet the the “most important infrastructure of this planet”, and demanded the Internet must be open, safe and inclusive, because it is important in itself and in everything else. He also asked for further efforts to overcome the digital divide, the risk of manipulation and polarisation and fight security threads. Eventually he pleaded to maintain a solid multistakeholder participation.
This approach was underlined by Carol Roach, Chair of the Multistakeholder Advisory Group to the IGF when she requested “to do the maths”. “Those we label small and less powerful are combined over 90 % of stakeholders around the world,” she said. “We would miss the SDGs, the Global Digital Compact and and further frameworks if we neglect the multistakeholder approach.”
From a child rights perspective these desiderata are the perfect segue to further sessions that day related to children and youths. In the afternoon the Dynamic Coalitions’ first cluster workshop on Innovation in AI, the Metaverse, Web 4.0 and other Emerging Technologies took place. Together with the DC on Digital Economy, the DC on Evolving Technologies, the DC Journalism, The Digital Teen Coalition and the Internet Standards, Security and Safety Coalition the Dynamic Coalition on Children’s Rights in the Digital Environment were discussing human rights implications and potential risks of these technologies. In a dialogue with about 70 participants onsite and more online representatives of the above mentioned DCs discussed AI governance, Platforms and developers accountability, and policy pathways. Torsten Krause, the representative of DC CRIDE, pointed out that all technologies should serve people and respect their rights. To ensure this, he recommended focussing on the fact that one third of all users of the digital environment worldwide are under the age of 18 and are therefore considered children within the meaning of the UN CRC. By introducing a child rights impact assessment, the balance between the rights to protection, promotion and participation could be maintained and services could be designed to enable children and young people to participate safely.
In the following session “Too young to Scroll? Age verification and Social Media Regulation” as part of the Global Youth Summit, young participants Amina Ramallan and Laura Rego joined Brendan Dowling, representative of the Australian government, and Martin Ruby from the Meta Group for a discussion. The young people emphasised the importance of social media services for the lives of their generation and pointed out that 83 percent of nine to 17-year-olds have a corresponding account. They called for young people and their perspectives to be included in the regulation of the digital environment, as this is the only way to ensure meaningful protection. In his contribution, the Australian representative pointed out that the restriction of young people up to the age of 16 from accessing social media should not be seen as a decision against them. Rather, these services were not a place that was appropriate for children. From the Australian government's perspective, it was also unsuccessful in bringing about the necessary adjustments to the services through political pressure on the providers. On the contrary, they had shown ‘a frustrating level of inactivity’. It was undisputed on the panel and among the other participants in the session that social media services need to develop further in order to ensure better protection for young people. However, there was also widespread criticism of Australia's approach and, for example, calls for more efforts to be made to regulate the services instead of restricting the opportunities for children and young people to participate.
At the end of the day the European Commission presented the EU example to protecting children and youth on Social Media. Firstly Karianne Tung set the scene for the debate with the Norwegian approach to child online safety seconded Mari Velsand, General Director of the Norwegian Media Authority (NMA), Then Fabrizia Benini, Head of Unit, Next-Generation Internet (CNECT.E.3), European Commission referred to the DSA Art. 28 (4) Guidelines which shall give orientation to platform and services providers how to comply with Art. 28, DSA to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, andsecutity for minors. The EC received more than 300 statements to the their open consultation on the Guidelines, she said, and they are now in the process of consolidating. Age Assurance is particularly in the focus as are also recommender systems and search features.
The release of these Guidelines as well as the release of the EC’s interim tool for age verification is eagerly awaited and will definitely have an impact on the protection of children and youth not only within the European Union but also beyond. Watch this space for further information in this regard during summer 2025.
We conclude today's IGF 2025 report with the words of Minister Karianne Tung: “We want an internet that is open, safe and inclusive, especially for our children.”