European Commission draft guidelines on protection of minors online

IRIS 2025-6:1/13

Amélie Lacourt

European Audiovisual Observatory

On 13 May 2025, the European Commission published Draft Guidelines on the protection of minors online. The guidelines stem from Article 28 DSA and aim to assist providers of online platforms accessible to minors to put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety, and security of minors, on their platforms.

These guidelines were developed following extensive research and consultations with various stakeholders, including children via the Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) online platform, as well as providers of online platforms, and experts from civil society and academia. The Commission and the Digital Services Coordinators also collaborated in developing these guidelines, through the European Board for Digital Services and its working group on the protection of minors.

A non-exhaustive list outlines the measures that all platforms (with the exception of micro and small enterprises) can implement to protect minors using a default privacy-by-design approach. The guidelines also adopt a risk-based approach, acknowledging that different platforms pose varying risks to minors. This enables platforms to tailor their measures to their specific services, thereby avoiding the imposition of unnecessary restrictions on children’s rights to participation, information and freedom of expression.

The measures outlined in the guidelines cover:

- Risk review

- Service design, including age assurance, registration, account settings, online interface design, other tools, recommender systems, search features, commercial practices and moderation.

- Reporting, user support, and tools for guardians.

- Governance, including terms and conditions, monitoring and evaluation, transparency.

The draft guidelines are open to final public feedback from all stakeholders, including children, parents and guardians, national authorities, online platform providers and experts, until 10 June 2025. The guidelines are expected to be published by the summer of 2025.

In parallel, a white label age-verification app will be launched by the Commission in summer 2025, until the EU Digital Identity Wallet is available at the end of 2026. Member states will be able to implement the app, which online service providers can then use to verify that users are over 18 without revealing any further identity information. The aim of the project is to develop an EU-harmonised privacy-preserving age verification solution.