Child rights experts refocusing teen social media ban debate on safe online experiences is a positive step for digital safety of children and young people

14 July 2026

The European Union's Special Panel on Child Safety Online issued a report recommending that further action be taken to tackle the harmful design of social media platforms.

Responding to the news, Lisa Dittmer, Researcher and Adviser on Children and Young People's Digital Rights at Amnesty International said:

"The expert panel is right to emphasize the need for children to be able to participate in a safe online environment. Banning teenagers from accessing social media is not the answer. As Amnesty International has long argued, it is the responsibility of tech companies to overhaul the built-in addictive and manipulative designs of leading social media platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to respect children's rights and safety.

"As Amnesty International has long argued, it is the responsibility of tech companies to overhaul the built-in addictive and manipulative designs of leading social media platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots to respect children's rights and safety."

"The expert panel has rejected a blanket ban for older teenagers and makes national level bans on teenagers older than 13 conditional upon continuous evaluation, recognizing them as a temporary measure at best on the path to enforcing design change. As the panel suggests, the focus must be on age-appropriate design, recognizing children's evolving capacities and their desire and right to shape their online environments. Along with civil society groups and independent researchers, children must also be meaningfully included in any assessment of platforms' risk mitigations and regulatory evaluations of what constitutes a safe platform.

"The EU institutions and member states should now focus their efforts on supporting a robust common framework of digital regulation, by ensuring the effective implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Digital Services Act, the AI Act and the forthcoming Digital Fairness Act."

Background

The European Commission appointed an expert panel to help develop a rights-based approach to keeping children safe online. The panel's recommendations were published today, and the European Commission is now expected to use them to determine Europe's approach to child safety online. The panel's recommendations were published today, and the European Commission is now expected to use them to determine Europe's approach to child safety online.

In 2025, Australia became the first country in the world to introduce a law banning social media access for children under the age of 16. Several European countries are discussing plans to introduce similar restrictions. The French government is hoping to implement an under-15s ban by September 2026, though the European Commission has warned President Macron's government that the French bill could breach existing European law.

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