14.05.2025

Yesterday, European Commission has launched in public consultation a draft guidelines setting out a list of measures aimed at supporting the online platforms - except small and micro enterprises - accessible to minors, to ensure a high level of protection for minors in the online environment. This is an essential step towards creating a safer and more secure digital environment for children across the European Union. The document is available on the European Commission`s website, here.

The guidelines adopt the same risk-based approach that underpins the DSA, recognising that different platforms pose varying levels of risks to minors. This ensures that platforms can tailor their measures to their specific services, avoiding undue restrictions on children’s rights to participation, information and freedom of expression. The non-exhaustive list of recommended measures includes:

• implementing age assurance measures to reduce minors ‘exposure to inappropriate content, such as pornography or other types of age-inappropriate content;
• setting minors‘ accounts as private by default, reducing the risk of unsolicited contact by strangers;
• enabling minors to block or to mute other users and to refuse being added to groups without their explicit agreement, which may contribute to reducing the risks of cyberbulling;
• promoting child-friendly reporting channels and ensuring child-friendly user support.

Observations regarding the proposed measures can be submitted via the European Commission`s website, here, until 10 June 2025. All stakeholders – children, parents, national authorities, intermediary services providers and experts – are invited to contribute with their views and recommendations.

The development of these measures recommended by the European Commission is the result of extensive consultations with interested stakeholders, including the initiative Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) Youth Ambassadors, online platform providers and experts from civil society and academia, as well as with the Digital Services Coordinators from member countries. The guidelines aim to support online platforms accessible to minors in respecting the provisions of Article 28, paragraph (1) of the Digital Services Act, regarding the protection of children’s privacy, safety and security.

In parallel, the European Commission is working to develop an age verification app which will protect users’ privacy and will work as a temporary solution until the official launching of the European Digital Passport, by the end of 2026. This open-source app, in beta version, is already available on the GitHub platform.

Context

Article 28 of DSA states that the European Commission can issue guidelines to assist providers of online platforms in the application of appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors.

ANCOM, as Digital Services Coordinator, has the role of verifying whether the providers of online platforms accessible to minors, established in Romania, have put in place the necessary measures to protect this category of users, according to DSA.  

Furthermore, ANCOM, as DSC in Romania, grants the status of trusted flagger to entities that detect, identify and notify illegal content online and that demonstrate fulfilling the conditions established by Article 22, paragraph (2) of DSA. The first certificate of trusted flagger was granted, in the field of competence "Facts concerning the minors", to the Save the Children Organization, a non-governmental organization whose mission is to guarantee equal opportunities for all children. One of the traditional programs of the Save the Children Organization is the online child safety program Ora de Net, within which it has also developed the esc_ABUZ reporting line, the only civil point of contact for reporting online child abuse materials hosted on servers in Romania.