Sittings · Document
On Protection of minors online
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection · Rapporteur: Christel Schaldemose
This draft report on protecting minors online calls for stronger enforcement of the Digital Services Act, EU-wide age verification, and new rules to ban addictive design and dark patterns.¶¶¶ It also urges action on video games, targeted advertising, influencer marketing, and artificial intelligence to close gaps in current EU law.¶¶¶
Committee position. The rapporteur proposes a resolution that urges the Commission to enforce existing laws, adopt guidelines, and propose new legislation to close gaps in protecting minors online.¶¶¶
Key points
- Urges the Commission to adopt guidelines on protecting minors online and to enforce the Digital Services Act, including concluding investigations and imposing fines.¶¶
- Calls for an EU rapid alert mechanism for dangerous online trends and for improved risk assessments by very large platforms.¶¶
- Urges member states to designate Digital Services Coordinators without delay and calls for a harmonised enforcement approach.¶
- Calls on the Commission to recommend effective age assurance or verification mechanisms and to propose legislation if needed.¶
- Stresses that parental control tools must not shift responsibility from platforms to parents and calls for better tools and data on their effectiveness.¶¶
- Calls for a horizontal legislative initiative to prohibit addictive design features and address excessive screen time.¶
- Urges the Commission to review the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive to clearly prohibit dark patterns such as preselected choices and misleading urgency claims.¶
- Calls for the Digital Fairness Act to prohibit loot boxes, in-app currencies, pay-to-progress and pay-to-win mechanisms in games likely accessed by minors.¶
- Calls for extending the ban on targeted advertising to minors to all traders and digital services, not just online platforms.¶
- Calls for banning influencer promotion of unhealthy or dangerous products for minors and for clarifying responsibilities of platforms and brands.¶¶
- Calls for swift implementation of AI Act transparency obligations, including watermarking of AI-generated content.¶
Who is affected
- Online platforms and digital services accessible to minors will face stricter enforcement and new obligations on design, age verification, and advertising.¶¶¶
- Video game providers may be subject to new prohibitions on certain monetisation mechanisms if the Commission follows the report's call.¶
- Social media influencers and brands promoting products could face bans on certain commercial practices.¶¶
- Parents and guardians would get more effective parental control tools and clearer responsibilities for platforms.¶¶
Written by a language model from the full text only; every figure comes from the text and ¶ links to the paragraph it rests on. Check the text itself before relying on it.