Children’s Rights and the Digital Services Act

The Digital Opportunities Foundation is putting its mark under a joint Open Letter from the members of the National Coalition Germany - Network for the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on the EU regulation "Digital Services Act" currently being discussed in the parliamentary procedure. The signatories recognise the ambitious goals of the European legislative project, but do not see the rights and protection of children and young people in the digital environment sufficiently guaranteed.

For example, the EU regulation is clearly behind the regulations of the German Youth Protection Act, which was only modernised in 2021. Precautionary measures, as provided for in Article 24a of the Youth Protection Act for providers of digital services, should in future only be prescribed at European level for very large platforms with more than 45 million users.

The signatories therefore call on the federal ministries involved in the European trialogue to include the rights of children to protection, empowerment and participation in the further negotiations on the EU regulation and thus to ensure that the priority of the best interests of the child according to Art. 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is also safeguarded in the digital environment.

You can download the English text of the open letter here.