The ‘Children and the Internet 2026’ report shows that changes to the law are needed

Children aged between 7 and 14 spend an average of 4 hours and 25 minutes online every day. There are 2.6 million children in this age group who use the internet in Poland, and 88 per cent of them spend most of their time online on mobile devices.

These figures are taken from this year's edition of the 'Children's Internet 2026' report, prepared by the Digital Citizenship Institute Foundation, Polish Internet Research, Gemius and the Commission for Counteracting Sexual Abuse of Minors Under the Age of 15. The Personal Data Protection Office is one of the report's patrons.

The report, which was presented on 15 June 2026 in the Sejm (Lower House of the Parliament) during a meeting of the Committee on Children and Youth, shows that children use their smartphones almost all day long - apart from during school hours. In the morning, before school, more than half of children (56 per cent) use their smartphones, switching them on between 6 and 8 am.

The authors of the report point out that children use the internet more intensively than other groups of internet users. Although they account for 8.7 per cent of internet users, they generate 11 per cent of the total time spent online.

- "Statistically speaking, children are therefore a better target audience for adverts than other internet users," said Krzysztof Mikulski, head of Polish Internet Research. He added that the time children spend online fuels internet advertising.

And as the report shows, children are not only shown adverts aimed at them. 1.2 million people aged between 7 and 14 have been exposed to adverts for alcoholic beer on social media apps.

During the presentation of the report, Anna Miotk from Polish Internet Research pointed out that, in theory, algorithms learn from our online behaviour. In practice, however, we are faced with the 'rabbit hole' effect, whereby algorithms show us content that is likely to grab the user's attention and keep them on the site for longer.

The authors of the report raised the issue of children using social media platforms that are not intended for those under the age of 13. Although the proportion of young users of such platforms has fallen from 58 per cent to 55 per cent compared with the previous report, when we exclude messaging apps from this statistic and focus on social media platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, 44 per cent of children aged between 7 and 12 actively use at least one of them.

Conference participants agreed that legal changes are needed to impose certain obligations on the owners of large social media platforms. Whilst certain changes and needs have been discussed for some time, Magdalena Bigaj, chair of the Digital Citizenship Institute Foundation, outlined the 'forces' behind these large corporations.

- There are 29,000 registered tech lobbyists operating in Brussels alone. In 2024, €151 million was recorded as having been spent by the Big Tech sector on lobbying activities targeting members of the European Commission. Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are the most active lobbyists at European Union level. In Poland, TikTok is also among this group, said Magdalena Bigaj.

Whilst discussing this year's report, she set out proposals and recommendations for the future. Among other things, she highlighted the need to introduce a minimum age for accessing social media platforms, the need to restrict mechanisms that encourage children to use digital services more intensively, and the need to limit profiling and the use of behavioural advertising targeting young people.

Monika Rosa, chair of the Sejm's Committee on Children and Youth, referred during the conference to the previous edition of the report, which had brought about significant changes.

- Firstly, it sparked a fact-based discussion and debate. It clearly outlined the reality of children and young people's presence in the digital world and the risks this entails. So we stepped out of our expert bubble and into a much broader discussion with parents, teachers and also decision-makers about how young people function in the digital world, and how the digital world exploits them to function so effectively,' said the MP. She added, however, that both the previous and current reports show that legal changes are also needed, and work in certain areas is already underway.

- We will soon be debating a bill in parliament that will effectively verify the age of access to pornographic content in the digital world. A draft bill that I have authored, concerning penalties for pathostreaming, has been submitted to the Senate. Work is currently underway on a new law that sets a threshold for digital maturity, said Monika Rosa.

There were also calls for future research into children's online activity and the risks they face. Konrad Ciesiołkiewicz, deputy chair of the State Commission for Counteracting Sexual Abuse of Minors Under the Age of 15, drew attention to the problem of online abuse of boys, which, for unknown reasons, is overlooked in many statistics.

The full report, 'Children and the Internet 2026', is available at: https://higienacyfrowa.pl/publikacje/internet-dzieci/