Media Board welcomes EU ambition to protect minors online and calls for a coherent framework

Media Board Chair, Amma Asante:

" A safe online environment for young people is an important public value, which we should protect. The Media Board is committed to ensuring that young people can develop online in a responsible and protected manner. This is a collective responsibility: we should continue to build on our shared expertise to achieve this objective. The Media Board and its members remain ready to contribute their longstanding regulatory experience to ensure that future measures are effective, proportionate, coherent and capable of delivering tangible improvements for children and young people across the EU.”

The European Board for Media Services (‘Media Board’) considers the protection of minors as a priority issue. Therefore, the Board welcomes the attention dedicated during Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's State of the Union address to the need to strengthen the protection of minors in the digital environment. 

The Media Board takes note of the Commission's intention to further strengthen the existing framework for the protection of minors online. The Board supports the view that children and young people can benefit from the opportunities offered by digital services, including social media, while being effectively protected from risks to their safety, wellbeing and development. 

Key priority
The protection and empowerment of minors is a key priority for Media Board members. It is a central pillar of the Board’s work promoting the effective implementation of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). Media regulators across Europe have extensive experience safeguarding minors from harmful content, supervising influencers and video-sharing platforms (VSPs), addressing commercial communications aimed at children, promoting media literacy and ensuring age-appropriate safeguards in both traditional audiovisual media and the digital environment. Through both national action and joint European cooperation, Media Board members have accumulated significant regulatory knowledge that can contribute to the success and actual enforcement of future European measures. 

The Media Board recognises that the experience gained through the implementation of the national rules transposing Article 28b AVMSD, as well as the application of Article 28 DSA and the accompanying Guidelines, has significantly advanced the standards of the protection of minors online. 

Existing EU legislation
The Media Board believes that any future legal framework should be designed in a manner that complements and strengthens existing EU legislation, while avoiding unnecessary overlaps, fragmentation or regulatory complexity. A coherent approach that jointly strengthens the protection of minors via existing instruments, regulatory expertise and established supervisory structures will provide the greatest benefits for children, young people, parents and society as a whole.

In its recent contribution to the evaluation of the AVMSD, the Media Board emphasised the Directive's importance and relevance regarding the protection of minors online. The Board specifically highlights and reiterates the importance of Article 28b of the Directive, which requires VSPs to take measures to protect users from certain harmful audiovisual content. These obligations apply to all VSPs, regardless of their size or nature. 

The Media Board also considers it essential that future initiatives fully recognise and build upon the expertise of national media regulators.

AVMSD rules
In this context, the Media Board highlights the importance of AVMSD rules on the protection of minors against harmful content and the need to consider their adaptation in the Directive’s forthcoming review. The Media Board will carefully assess the legislative proposal for the EU KIDS Act, including its interaction with the existing EU framework, such as the AVMSD. 

We stand ready to engage constructively with the European Commission as discussions progress.