DSA Implementation Forum: Protection of Minors

The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) aims to foster safer online environments through the regulation of online intermediaries, including very large online platforms and search engines. The DSA requires these very large platforms and search engines to engage in risk mitigation across a wide range of risk domains, including risks posed to children and young people. Moreover, the DSA imposes specific obligations on all online platforms to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors who use their services.

Regulators and service providers seeking to implement these requirements face not only technical hurdles, but also normative questions about how to achieve a balance that best vindicates the fundamental rights of young users. Successful implementation will deliver safer digital environments, while maintaining the ability of young users to positively interact with the online world. CERRE’s DSA Implementation Forum charts a path towards this vision by setting out the building blocks of a robust framework for the safeguarding of children and young people online. Focusing on two key strands of the online protection of minors, age assurance and age-appropriate design, research under the Forum aims to support the development of a coherent set of rules at the EU-level.

In Protection of Minors: Age-Appropriate Design, author Miriam Buiten examines the goals of age-appropriate design in light of the DSA’s child safety obligations. Considering both specific design measures and broader governance mechanisms that platforms can adopt to protect children, the paper identifies guiding principles to ensure online safety for children and highlights best practices to complement the requirements of the DSA. Key findings arising from the analysis include:

• In relation the European Commission’s forthcoming guidance on the protection of minors, the need for clear and actionable guidance that clearly distinguishes between the binding obligations under the DSA and additional recommendations.
• The need to establish clear design and governance principles for online spaces that prioritise safety by default and actively prevent the emergence of harmful patterns
• The need to develop a robust framework for protective measures, in order to structure the evaluation and implementation of initiatives that prioritise the rights of children and young people. Such a framework would establish a baseline and best practices for child protection across platforms, while allowing for flexibility to address the diverse nature of online services and risks.

In Protection of Minors: Age Assurance, author Michèle Ledger explores the ecosystem of EU provisions linked to age assurance alongside key initiatives relating to age assurance in EU Member States and farther afield. The paper sheds light on the current fragmented paradigm and examines the benefits of EU-wide harmonisation with respect to the protection of minors and the deployment of pan-European digital services. The paper contains the following key recommendations:

• If the guidelines prove insufficient, EU policy makers should move towards making a concrete decision on whether age verification should be mandated in relation to access adult content services, and subsequently in relation to other high-risk content.
• The level of state intervention necessary for age assurance technology should be clarified- and the respective roles of the European Commission and national competent authorities.
• The rights of the child and other guiding principles should be clearly articulated in the EU’s normative system when adopting or recommending rules on age assurance.

These papers are supported by the companion Issue Paper Charting the Path for Protection of Minors Under the DSA, which summarises and contextualises the core provisions relating to the protection of minors under the DSA. The paper goes on to identify the key themes and findings arising from the research of this year’s Forum, providing an evidence-based outlook on the future development and implementation of rules for the protection of minors within the EU’s digital acquis.

For more on the future of the Digital Services Act and the regulation of platform services, see CERRE’s recent series on Systemic Risk in Digital Services. The research aligns with our goal to support the development of safe, positive and fair online platform ecosystems, under the aegis of CERRE’s Ambitions for Europe 2024-2029.