Commission Publishes Draft Guidelines on Protecting Minors Online
On May 13, 2025, the European Commission published draft guidelines detailing the obligations of online platforms under the Digital Services Act (DSA) to protect minors. These guidelines clarify that platforms accessible to individuals under 18 must implement robust measures to safeguard minors’ privacy, safety, and security. The scope of harm addressed includes illegal or harmful content, unwanted contact, cyberbullying, and platform overuse. The guidelines arrive alongside recent UK developments, such as Ofcom’s April 2025 statement on online child safety, signaling a converging regulatory focus across jurisdictions.
The guidelines specify that age assurance is not always mandatory; providers must assess whether such measures are proportionate to the risks faced by minors on their platforms. Age assurance can take the form of age verification, age estimation, or self-declaration, though the latter is deemed insufficient on its own. For higher-risk services, robust age verification, such as government-issued IDs or the EU Digital Identity Wallet, is required. Providers are encouraged to offer multiple age assurance methods to avoid excluding users and must carefully evaluate the effectiveness and impact of their chosen solutions.
Risk assessment is central to compliance, requiring platforms to evaluate the likelihood of minors accessing their services, the risks posed, and the effectiveness of mitigation measures. Recommended safeguards include default high-privacy settings for minors’ accounts, restrictions on exploitative commercial practices, and the implementation of user-friendly reporting and complaint mechanisms. Platforms are also expected to establish internal governance structures dedicated to minors’ online safety and to ensure that terms and conditions are accessible and tailored to minors.
The draft guidelines are open for public consultation until June 10, 2025, with final adoption expected in summer 2025. Providers subject to both the DSA and the UK Online Safety Act should align compliance efforts to leverage regulatory overlaps. Legal professionals should monitor these developments closely to advise clients on evolving obligations and best practices for protecting minors online.
