UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has urged countries and tech companies to develop effective regulations for online platforms to enhance the protection of children. This call to action includes the proposal of guidelines with crucial components for developing these regulations. Türk pointed out that such regulations could mitigate potential harms faced by children online, emphasizing that features like infinite scrolling and persistent notifications are deliberate business strategies aimed at fostering user addiction. Regulations would require tech companies to incorporate child safety into their product design, promoting measures such as maximum data privacy protection and mandatory human rights due diligence, among other safeguards as outlined in the JURIST report.
The framework for these recommendations draws upon the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, emphasizing that state parties must prioritize the best interests of the child and consider their evolving capacities. Decision-making processes should integrate the views of children, ensuring that policies are inclusive and non-discriminatory.
Türk’s statement responds to a trend where countries are increasingly implementing age restrictions and broad social media bans, which he cautioned against. Such approaches, he argued, do not address the fundamental root causes of safety risks, such as design choices and algorithmic practices. For instance, Australia’s recent blanket ban on underage social media users, enacted since December 2025, demands transparency from companies regarding the termination of underage accounts. Despite this, the country’s online safety watchdog noted non-compliance issues, as detailed in an analysis by Forbes. In May, an Australian court penalized a major social media company with a $465,000 USD fine for failing to disclose its preventive measures against child exploitation.
This regulatory approach is reflected globally, with countries like Greece planning to ban social media access for minors under 15, while the UK, Spain, France, Indonesia, and Türkiye are considering similar limits. In the United States, New York’s regulatory move to compel online platforms to alert users to addictive features underscores the general concern, coinciding with ongoing lawsuits in California, where companies face allegations that their addictive designs have harmed children.
Alongside Türk’s call, ARTICLE 19, an organization championing free expression, has advised Malaysia against implementing blanket social media bans for minors, describing such measures as disproportionate and violative of privacy and free speech rights. These legal and regulatory discussions highlight the nuanced challenges of balancing child safety with the freedoms of digital expression, as contemporaneously discussed in a Guardian article.