The European Commission aims to implement new requirements for digital services with the EU KIDS Act to better protect children and adolescents. The proposed rules would apply to social media platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube; AI chatbots; online games; and app stores.
According to Dr. Stephan Dreyer, this draft regulation proposes “nothing less than a comprehensive EU regulatory framework for the protection of minors in the digital space.” In his statement for the Science Media Center, he explains: “Until now, the European legal framework in this area has been limited to directives that member states were required to transpose into national law, particularly the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). Additionally, the Digital Services Act (DSA) contains a few vague provisions for online platforms, and the AI Act has very obscure provisions on the protection of children in relation to AI systems and AI models. With the EU Kids Act, the EU plans to introduce a broadly harmonized system for protecting minors online with a correspondingly broad scope of application, differentiated and tiered rules, and a regulatory framework integrated into the GDPR, the DSA, and the AI Act.”
You can read his full statement in German on the Science Media Center website.