PACE committee urges new laws to protect children online

25/03/2024 Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development

A PACE committee is calling for laws to protect children by reducing their exposure to harmful content online while not infringing on their opportunities to benefit from the internet.

The Assembly’s Social Affairs Committee, approving a draft resolution and recommendation on the basis of a report by Joseph O’Reilly (Ireland, EPP/CD), said the “best interests of the child” must be paramount in shaping policy. Among other things, it urged European governments to:

• require age verification on websites providing goods or services not destined for children;
• ban harmful “deepfakes” and ensure their removal from digital platforms;
• implement school-based programmes to protect children, and inform and engage parents and care-givers;
• implement comprehensive sexuality education;
• set up “hash databases” to identify and locate children subject to sexual exploitation or abuse.

They should also work with technology industry players to develop policies to address cyberbullying, harassment and online hatred, and build in default safety features to products for children.

The committee also urged those states that have not done so to accede to Council of Europe Conventions to protect children against sexual abuse and counter cybercrime and to exchange information on child sexual abuse cases via Interpol.

The report should be debated in due course by the full plenary Assembly.

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