Children's rights in the EU Digital Services Act

Eurochild sent a joint letter to Members of the European Parliaments (MEPs) to take measures for the protection, safety and privacy of children online.

Children require and have the legal right to specific protections to ensure their wellbeing.

As written in the letter: "We – representing more than 2000 children’s rights organisations and parents’ associations, and speaking on behalf of some 200 million children and parents in the EU – are happy to see that a requirement for companies to “adapt their design features to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security by design for minors” (Art 15a) and a ban on the use of the personal data of minors for commercial purposes (Art 24) have been included in your latest Compromise Amendments to the Digital Services Act (DSA), backed up by industry Standards (Art 34)."

The Digital Services Act (DSA) is an EU legislative initiative aiming to create a safer digital space where the fundamental rights of users are protected and to establish a level playing field for businesses.

Together with the 5 Rights Foundation, Missing Children Europe, ECPAT and EPA, Eurochild urges MEPs to ensure these provisions all remain as part of the final agreement, and that the Regulation be explicitly underpinned by EU and international law on the rights of the child.

Read the joint letter to the rapporteurs

Eurochild has also signed another open letter asking to shape the DSA so it can empower all users to act against wrongful platform decisions and disinformative content.

DSA is a critical opportunity to fix the existing asymmetries between users and platforms, giving users real possibilities to act through the notice and action and internal complaint mechanisms, as well as out-of-court dispute settlement.

At the moment, users do not have consistent ways to appeal platform decisions. The letter urges MEP to broaden the application of Art.17 (1), so it covers all cases, including where users want to act when a platform has not removed or disabled access to a piece of content.