Rather than blanket social media age restrictions, it is time for a paradigm shift. Families are doing their best for their children, but they cannot be alone to ensure a balance of participation, protection and empowerment online. Tech companies need to ensure that their technology is designed in an age-appropriate manner, incorporating sufficient safeguards, and that they respect human rights, including children’s rights. Regulators must set clear rules, ensure they are fully enforced and hold tech companies to account.
COFACE Families Europe brings together the perspectives from 50+ family organisations from across Europe, representing millions of families, caregivers, volunteers, and professionals. COFACE uses a pluralistic and multigenerational approach which is based on the interrelated well-being of children and their families. This position paper aims to contribute to the current discussion on introducing and enforcing age restrictions for children and young people accessing social media, as a means of better protecting them from online risks. The COFACE network is calling for a holistic, evidence-based, rights-based and inclusive approach to digital safety and well-being for children and their families.
Children are exposed by many online risks and should be better protected in the digital environment. However, the solution must be holistic and consider different family realities, as well as children’s rights in the digital environment. Child protection should be organised within the digital environment, not in opposition, and it should also be integrated into pedagogical and social contexts. This protection goes hand in hand with the responsibility of tech companies to ensure that their products and services are safe. If they do not respect the rules and children’s rights, they should be banned from the market. To ensure that children’s rights in the digital environment are realised through both protection and empowerment, digital literacy education plays a key role. Children need access to safe and participatory spaces, both online and offline, where they can learn, play, inform themselves and have fun.
At COFACE Families Europe we will continue following further research and policy developments and contribute to ensuring a safer and more inclusive digital environment for all, and especially for children. We believe that different actors can contribute towards digital safety and well-being for children and therefore have formulated some key recommendations below. First and foremost, there is the responsibility of the technology companies themselves. They know their products and services best, and they have the necessary resources to ensure safe digital experiences and comply with their due diligence obligations. Furthermore, as stated in UNCRC General Comment No. 25, States must hold businesses accountable to ensure they respect children’s rights. Therefore, the recommendations listed in the position paper are primarily addressed to technology companies, European institutions, and national governments.
Read the full position paper here.
