On Thursday 16 October, MEPs on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) are due to vote on the minimum age for access to social networks, set at between 13 and 16 in a compromise between the main groups.
The compromise amendments to Christel Schaldemose’s draft report on the protection of minors online (see EUROPE 13716/6), drawn up by the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe and Greens/EFA groups and published by Agence Europe, set the minimum age for access to social networks and make a clear call for the Commission’s future ‘Digital Fairness Act’ (see EUROPE 13645/12).
“Digital majority”, also known as the “harmonised European digital age limit” is divided into two thresholds: - an initial age limit at 13, below which access to social networks should be completely banned; - a second at 16, for free access to any platform. In between, there will be a 3-year transition period during which minors will need parental consent to access the networks.
According to parliamentary sources, the decision to set the age at 16 was mainly motivated by the EPP, but is still acceptable to the other groups, who were in favour of a threshold of 15 (see EUROPE 13667/16).
The text calls on the Commission to strengthen the protection of minors online through the DFA and asks that “persuasive technologies used by online actors, such as targeted advertising, influencer marketing, addictive design, loot boxes, in app-currencies, in video-games, and dark patterns” be covered by this future legislative text.
The compromise amendments take a broad view, emphasising the limited power of parents, the need for better supervision of platforms and their obligations, the importance of not infringing the fundamental rights of minors, and the need to further strengthen the implementation of the DSA.
According to the amendments, the Commission should be able to require platforms to “ban engagement-based recommender algorithms for minors” (‘safety by design’) and to disable some of the most addictive features.
The text also indicates that the Commission’s guidelines could be “further improved”, or even become “legally binding” (see EUROPE 13680/16).
It also proposes that age verification tools should be “systemically implemented for online platforms or digital services selling products or services that fall under an age restriction” as well as for “social media platforms, video-sharing platforms and AI companions which present risk to minors”.
The issue of protecting minors online, which has suddenly gained political attention since the beginning of the summer (see EUROPE 13666/24), is being discussed by the Commission (see EUROPE 13716/7), the Council of the EU (see EUROPE 13728/1) and the Parliament, which has produced its own own-initiative report.
The text is due to be put to the vote at the November plenary session in Strasbourg.
Link to the compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/iy5 (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)