EXCLUSIVE: Danish presidency wants EU to play bigger role in online child safeguarding<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Danish Presidency wants EU governments and the Commission to take further measures to protect\u2026\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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Age limits: National or EU choice?<\/p>\n
The draft declaration stopped short of calling for an EU-wide social media age limit \u2013 the age below which children would be barred from creating accounts on platforms like Instagram or TikTok.<\/p>\n
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the issue<\/a> a top priority in her recent State of the Union address, eyeing the possibility of EU-wide rules to curb children\u2019s use of social media services, which she characterised as profit-seeking and harmfully addictive.\u00a0<\/p>\n But Brussels faces a legal roadblock as the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU\u2019s online governance rulebook, doesn\u2019t provide a mechanism to set age restrictions. Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier acknowledges the limitation, confirming that the DSA only allows the Commission to issue guidelines on how platforms can protect minors. He told reporters last month that the DSA \u201cis not the legal basis\u201d that could set social media age limits.<\/p>\n The Commission\u2019s DSA guidelines<\/a> leave it up to national governments to define their own so-called \u201cdigital age of majority\u201d \u2013 the age at which a child can use digital services without parental consent.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not entirely new. Under the bloc\u2019s privacy rulebook, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), EU countries already have the power to set their own digital age thresholds for children\u2019s information to be processed. Below which, parental consent is required.<\/p>\n Denmark, spurred on by the Commission\u2019s DSA guidelines, announced<\/a> on Tuesday that it would ban several social media websites for children under 15-years-old.<\/p>\n Whether other EU countries will rally behind the Danish approach \u2013 or push for a common EU-wide age limit \u2013 remains to be seen.\u00a0<\/p>\n Who bears responsibility \u2013 parents or platforms?<\/p>\n A deeper rift lurks beneath the surface: Who bears responsibility for protecting children online \u2013 parents or platforms?<\/p>\n