News item | 7/14/2023 | 4:05 PM
Children’s rights are under great pressure in the digital world in various ways. This concerns various rights, such as the right to privacy, to relaxation, to protection against harmful content and the right to healthy mental and physical development. With the new measures, the outgoing cabinet is following up on the coalition agreement in which it has been agreed that children will be given extra protection against inappropriate ‘online’ advertising and child marketing and the right not to be tracked and not to receive data profiles.
“The digital world changes every day, but the impact of technology on children is not always immediately noticeable. That is why we must guarantee that children’s rights are also well protected in the online world,” said State Secretary Van Huffelen. “The new measures we are taking are aimed at further regulating providers, supporting a child’s environment, strengthening government supervision and setting up hotlines and a national center of expertise. In addition, I especially want to look together with young people at where solutions and improvements lie.”
Regulation of providers
Adequate age verification systems
Enforcement of applicable age limits proves difficult in practice, because in many cases children can state a higher age than they actually are. Good age verification systems are therefore of great importance. Adequate age verification systems prevent children from coming into contact with content that is harmful to them, and prevent their personal data from being collected and profiled by companies. The outgoing cabinet is therefore working on the creation of good age verification systems.
Approach to seduction techniques and dark patterns
In addition to the rules in the AVG, DSA and AVMDS, the outgoing cabinet wants to regulate providers extensively in the near future, including through consumer legislation. This mainly concerns the approach to online seduction techniques and so-called dark patterns. These techniques can encourage users to be online for a long time and/or to do other things that are not (always) in their best interest (such as making purchases). Children are especially sensitive to this. Well-known example is the so-called loot box, a casino-like system in which you pay real money to see a digital box (or pack of cards) open and one of the reasons for the outgoing cabinet to take action on this.
Online privacy and economic exploitation
The caretaker Minister of Social Affairs and Employment will develop a clear and guiding (standards) framework for online child labour. This mainly concerns the protection of young influencers. This framework of standards is laid down in new laws and regulations.
Approach Online advertising
The outgoing State Secretary for Culture and Media is in talks with the Media Authority about strengthening supervision on this point. The European Consumer Organization (ECO) also has an eye for the position of influencers. She recommends that transparency and disclosure requirements be further defined, standardized and harmonized at EU level. Monitoring and enforcement of compliance should also be facilitated. She also recommends qualifying the promotion of illegal products and services by influencers as an unfair commercial practice. These products and services are then placed on the blacklist of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. Within Europe, the outgoing cabinet is strongly committed to adopting these recommendations by the ECO.
Supporting parents/educators and schools
Public Communication
It is important that both children and parents have knowledge of the digital world, so that they are more resistant to possible risks. We are currently working on a multi-year public communication campaign. This campaign should start in the autumn and this year will focus on the effects of being online for a long time. The outgoing cabinet wants to provide parents and children with insight into how to achieve good digital health. developing accessible communication methodologies and providing parents with the tools to determine the healthy use of digital products and services.
Other topics that will be discussed are disinformation and awareness about data processing by apps. It discusses the risks and what you as parents, caregivers and children can do to counteract these risks.
Keep smartphones out of the classroom
An agreement has been made with boards, schools, teachers, parents and students that mobile phones are not allowed in the classroom, unless they are used for educational purposes in class. This agreement applies to secondary education and will be applied from 1 January 2024
Strengthen supervision
The outgoing cabinet will explore whether it is possible to set up a personal data authority for children or a specific department within the Personal Data Authority (AP). This authority or department would then be concerned with the processing of personal data of minors and strengthening the online privacy of minors.
Connection of hotlines to a national center of expertise
The outgoing cabinet intends to set up a center of expertise for digitization and health, in which knowledge and expertise will be bundled. A structural, sustainable build-up of a knowledge base about digitization and health contributes to the formulation of effective and impactful policy. In the center of expertise, parties will work together on the shared mission: the realization of a society that is digitally balanced.
Together with young people
The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations will set up a youth panel together with Unicef Netherlands, in which young people and members of the outgoing cabinet will discuss the opportunities and risks of the digital world four times a year. The sessions are organized thematically and can, for example, discuss harmful content or online advertising, but also how a child can be creative in the digital world or how the digital world can strengthen a child’s learning ability.
Protecting children’s rights is a cross-domain issue involving many parties and the roles and responsibilities of all relevant parties must be taken into account. The outgoing cabinet will work together to initiate concrete actions to strengthen legislation, policy and supervision.