The report recommends introducing children and young people to ‘social media+’ in stages. This includes familiar social media, but also online games and AI chatbots. These media often pose a safety risk to children and young people, for example through harmful content, endless scrolling, commercial activities and intrusive notifications.
Step-by-step development
The report is based on step-by-step development. It therefore contains recommendations for each age category:
- 0–3 years: avoid screens and social media.
- 3–13 years: allow children to use only social media that is suitable for them, under supervision and with guidance.
- 13–18 years: give young people access only to social media that can prove it is safe for them.
The expectation is that the European Commission will take the recommendations into account in the legislative proposals it will submit to the European Parliament and the Member States after the summer.
Dutch Youth Institute pleased
Rebecca Wald of the Dutch Youth Institute is pleased with the developmental basis of the advice. “It takes the development of children and young people into account. Instead of one strict age limit, it looks at the step-by-step development from ages 0 to 18. It is also positive that the advice is based on children’s rights. Not only the right to protection from the negative effects of social media, but also children’s right to information and participation in society. Moreover, the premise is that social media platforms have no right of access to children. So in fact, it is not about an age ban for children and young people, but about a reach ban for companies.”
Points for attention
Wald does, however, have some points for attention.
- Safety standards and fines
“The report does not yet specify which minimum safety standards providers will have to meet, or how high the fines will be if they fail to comply with the rules. It is important that following the rules is economically more attractive than violating them. Otherwise, companies will think: if we violate the rules and pay the fines, we will still have enough profit left. They will then have little motivation to adapt their design. A safe design must be more profitable than paying fines.”
- Enforcing age limits
“A technical solution is still needed to enforce the proposed age limits. That is quite difficult. In Australia, many young people still use social media despite the legal ban there. Young people know how to circumvent the current age verification methods.”
- Further definition of social media
“Which mechanisms or functions determine that? At the same time, that broader definition is a strong point. You should not limit the regulations to existing platforms, because the day after tomorrow there will be something new again. That is why we need to look at the underlying mechanisms, so that the rules will also remain applicable in the future.”
Positive about involving young people
Wald considers it positive that young people were involved in drawing up the plan. “And that the authors advocate involving them in its further development as well. They make this concrete with recommendations that we at NJi also often give, for example that when involving young people, you should always report back to them on what has been done with their input.”
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