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UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday urged countries and tech companies to establish effective regulation of online platforms to better protect children. The appeal comes with a guideline of important components required in regulations.
Türk highlighted that effective regulations can prevent online harm posed to children. He emphasized that features–such as infinite scroll and constant notifications–are intentional business choices to get users addicted. With regulations, governments can ensure that tech companies embed children’s safety into their product design. The 10 suggested steps include maximizing data privacy protection, mandating human rights due diligence and transparency by companies, and limiting age restrictions to specific harm.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child guided the framework. Under the convention, the state parties must prioritize “the best interest of the child” and show respect for their evolving capacities. Child-related decision-making must weigh in children’s view. The policies must also be non-discriminatory.
Türk’s Friday statement follows the countries’ growing use of age restrictions and blanket social media bans, which he advised against, as outright bans do not address the root causes of the safety risks–the design choices and algorithm practices. He added: “Blanket social media bans are not a one-off panacea for what is a multifaceted issue. Simply limiting access to platforms that remain unsafe cannot stand as the endpoint in effectively protecting children.”
Australia has adopted a blanket social media ban on underage users since December 2025. The law requires that companies disclose the number of underage accounts they terminate every month. Nevertheless, the country’s online safety watchdog reported non-compliance in April, citing ineffective age-verification methods. On May 22, an Australian court imposed a fine of $465,000 USD on X for its failure to disclose steps taken to prevent child exploitation.
Governments are adopting similar approaches worldwide. Greece announced in April its plan to ban children under the age of 15 from using social media. While the age limit varies, the UK, Spain, France, Indonesia, and Türkiye have adopted or are moving to implement a social media ban on minors.
In the US, New York has required online platforms to alert users to their addictive features since December 2025. A California court is also deliberating on claims against social media companies, alleging that the product designs, intended to make their users addicted, caused physical and emotional harm to the claimant’s child.
On the same day Türk made his statement, ARTICLE 19, a global campaign for free expression, urged Malaysia to withdraw its blanket social media bans for minors. The group described it as “misguided and disproportionate” for violating the right to privacy and free speech of all social media users.
The post UN rights chief calls for effective regulation of online platform to protect children appeared first on JURIST - News.
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Türk highlighted that effective regulations can prevent online harm posed to children. He emphasized that features–such as infinite scroll and constant notifications–are intentional business choices to get users addicted. With regulations, governments can ensure that tech companies embed children’s safety into their product design. The 10 suggested steps include maximizing data privacy protection, mandating human rights due diligence and transparency by companies, and limiting age restrictions to specific harm.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child guided the framework. Under the convention, the state parties must prioritize “the best interest of the child” and show respect for their evolving capacities. Child-related decision-making must weigh in children’s view. The policies must also be non-discriminatory.
Türk’s Friday statement follows the countries’ growing use of age restrictions and blanket social media bans, which he advised against, as outright bans do not address the root causes of the safety risks–the design choices and algorithm practices. He added: “Blanket social media bans are not a one-off panacea for what is a multifaceted issue. Simply limiting access to platforms that remain unsafe cannot stand as the endpoint in effectively protecting children.”
Australia has adopted a blanket social media ban on underage users since December 2025. The law requires that companies disclose the number of underage accounts they terminate every month. Nevertheless, the country’s online safety watchdog reported non-compliance in April, citing ineffective age-verification methods. On May 22, an Australian court imposed a fine of $465,000 USD on X for its failure to disclose steps taken to prevent child exploitation.
Governments are adopting similar approaches worldwide. Greece announced in April its plan to ban children under the age of 15 from using social media. While the age limit varies, the UK, Spain, France, Indonesia, and Türkiye have adopted or are moving to implement a social media ban on minors.
In the US, New York has required online platforms to alert users to their addictive features since December 2025. A California court is also deliberating on claims against social media companies, alleging that the product designs, intended to make their users addicted, caused physical and emotional harm to the claimant’s child.
On the same day Türk made his statement, ARTICLE 19, a global campaign for free expression, urged Malaysia to withdraw its blanket social media bans for minors. The group described it as “misguided and disproportionate” for violating the right to privacy and free speech of all social media users.
The post UN rights chief calls for effective regulation of online platform to protect children appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.