§1 INTRODUCTION
1. Online platforms are increasingly accessed by minors (1) and can provide several benefits to them. For example, online platforms may provide access to a wealth of educational resources, helping minors to learn new skills and expand their knowledge. Online platforms may also offer minors opportunities to express their views and connect with others who share similar interests, helping minors to build social skills, confidence and a sense of community. By playing on and exploring the online environment, minors can also foster their natural curiosity, engaging in activities that encourage creativity, problem solving, critical thinking, agency and entertainment. 2. There is, however, wide consensus among policy makers, regulatory authorities, civil society, researchers, educators and guardians (2) that the current level of privacy, safety and security online of minors is often inadequate. The design and features of the wide variety of online platforms and the services offered by providers of online platforms accessible to minors may create risks to minors’ privacy, safety and security and exacerbate existing risks. These risks include, for example, exposure to illegal content (3) and harmful content, that undermines minors’ privacy, safety and security or that may impair the physical or mental development of minors. They also include cyberbullying or contact from individuals seeking to harm minors, such as those seeking to sexually abuse or extort minors, human traffickers and those seeking to recruit minors into criminal gangs or promote violence, radicalisation, violent extremism and terrorism. Minors may also face risks as consumers as well as risks related to extensive use or overuse of online platforms and exposure to inappropriate or exploitative practices, including in relation to gambling and gaming. The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (‘AI’) chatbots and companions into online platforms as well as AI driven deep fakes may also affect how minors interact with online platforms, exacerbate existing risks, and pose new ones that can negatively affect a minor’s privacy, safety and security (4). These risks can originate from the direct experience of the minor with the platform and/or from the actions of other users on the platform. 3. These guidelines aim to support providers of online platforms in addressing these risks by providing a set of measures that the Commission considers will help these providers to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security of minors on their platforms, which will contribute to the protection of minors, which is an important policy objective of the Union. These guidelines also aim at helping the Digital Services Coordinators (DSCs) and competent national authorities when applying and interpreting Article 28 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065. For instance, making minors’ accounts more private will, among others, help providers of online platforms reduce the risk of unwanted or unsolicited contact. Implementing age assurance measures (5) may, among others, help providers reduce the risk of minors being exposed to services, content, conduct, contacts or commercial practices that undermine their privacy, safety and security. Adopting these and other measures – on matters ranging from recommender systems and governance to user support and reporting – may help providers of online platforms make online platforms safer, more secure and more privacy preserving for minors.
Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07