What changed between the plenary report and the adopted text

– having regard to the opinions of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs,

– having regard to the report of the Committee on Culture and Education (A10-0220/2026),

A. whereas in 2024, the share of young people in the EU using the internet daily reached 97 % on average; whereas global screen time data from 2025 show that teenagers aged 11-14 spend around 9 hours per day on screens and children aged 8-10 around 6 hours per day;

B. whereas social media use among children and young people in the EU aged 9-16 has more than doubled since 2010, now averaging 3 hours per day, with over 80 % using social media platforms daily;

C. whereas the ‘online environment’ refers broadly to internet-connected platforms, services and devices used for communication, entertainment, education and access to information;

D. whereas minors can be both victims and perpetrators of digital harms;

E. whereas gender-based online violence in all its forms, including sextortion, hate speech, stalking, image-based sexual abuse, grooming, and the non-consensual sharing of intimate material or sexts, represents a severe violation of fundamental rights and human dignity;

F. whereas children and young people from vulnerable groups, including those living in poverty, those with disabilities, those in residential or institutional care, and those with limited family supervision, as well as Roma, LGBTIQ+ and migrant children and young people, and those from racial or ethnic minority backgrounds, face inequalities that are often exacerbated in the online environment; whereas they are disproportionately exposed to risks such as cyberbullying, hate speech, grooming, discrimination, algorithmic bias and addictive platform design, which can lead to serious mental health harms; whereas the available data indicate a systematic underestimation of the problem, as many victims refrain from reporting due to fear, shame, lack of trust or limited knowledge of support mechanisms, ; whereas disparities in internet access, digital and media literacy, and access to relevant support services, particularly in rural and remote areas, further deepen exclusion and inequality;

G. whereas young women and girls from marginalised groups, such as those with disabilities or those from marginalised racial and ethnic backgrounds, face intersectional forms of discrimination that increase the risk of physical violence offline;

H. whereas hostility harms young people even if they are not directly targeted, fostering a culture of intolerance; whereas the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights has highlighted that detecting illegal and harmful online hate is very difficult, as no single methodology can reliably capture its full scale; whereas without independent research and monitoring, the prevalence of online hate speech is systematically underestimated;

I. whereas conduct that is unlawful or harmful offline should not be tolerated online; whereas the digital environment must uphold the rule of law, fundamental rights and child-protection standards, without imposing disproportionate restrictions on freedom of expression or innovation;

J. whereas digital service providers should ensure that their services are age-appropriate by design and adhere to high standards of ethics, privacy and safety, including by setting minors’ profiles to private by default, preventing unwanted contact from strangers, and ensuring that profiling-based recommender systems are not enabled by default;

K. whereas the online environment provides young people with opportunities for learning, creativity, civic participation and social connection, enabling them to exercise their rights and freedoms, including freedom of expression, the right to education, the right to access information, and the right to participate in political and public life;

L. whereas the online environment can also expose young users to a wide range of illegal and harmful content, including cyberbullying, grooming, sexualised material, child sexual abuse material, online gambling, harassment and abuse; whereas this can also include disinformation, extremism and incitement to dangerous behaviour, with a significant number of European children reporting having been disturbed or upset by negative online experiences;

M. whereas digital platforms often do not offer effective protection mechanisms; whereas there is an urgent need for the effective implementation and enforcement of existing EU legislation and a need to clarify possible interlinks and overlaps among those legislative acts; whereas minors should enjoy a higher level of protection when using all online services, with proportionate obligations according to the providers’ size, role and risk profile;

N. whereas the current EU legal framework, including the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD), provides a solid foundation for protecting children online, including through content moderation, transparency in recommender systems and data minimisation; whereas persistent gaps and inconsistencies in enforcement remain, demonstrating the need for a harmonised EU approach;

O. whereas the Commission has committed to strengthening the protection of children online through the upcoming Digital Fairness Act;

P. whereas under the AVMSD, the Member States must ensure that audiovisual media service providers and video-sharing platforms put in place measures to protect minors from content that may impair their physical, mental or moral development; whereas under the AVMSD, the personal data of minors must not be processed for commercial purposes, profiling and behaviourally targeted advertising;

Q. whereas under the DSA, online platforms are not allowed to show ads based on personal data profiling if they know the user is a minor;

R. whereas the GDPR’s principle of data minimisation strictly applies to both the direct collection and the indirect behavioural tracking of minors’ data;

S. whereas digital services that process the personal data of children, including for recommender systems, and for photo or video filters that adjust children’s physical appearance, do not request the ‘explicit consent’ of a parent or guardian, and opt for another legal basis to collect and process the personal data of minors;

T. whereas the AI Act includes specific safeguards for children, by prohibiting AI systems that exploit their vulnerabilities and by establishing obligations for high-risk AI systems;

U. whereas minors increasingly interact with AI-driven tools, including conversational agents and recommender systems, which play an increasing role in shaping online experiences and interactions;

V. whereas young people use social media, content-sharing platforms, online aggregators and AI assistants for news consumption to an increasing extent; whereas many users experience challenges in assessing the reliability of information encountered in the online environment;

W. whereas cyberbullying happens wherever children interact online, including on social media, video-sharing platforms, messaging platforms, online forums and gaming platforms;

X. whereas cyberbullying affects a significant proportion of children across all online environments; whereas cyberbullying rates have increased in nearly all EU countries, with studies showing that approximately 1 in 6 children in Europe has experienced cyberbullying, and that between 13 % and 29 % report frequent bullying both online and offline; whereas online and offline bullying are intrinsically linked and must be treated holistically, as digital harassment often extends from school-based conflicts and vice versa, leading to long-term consequences for the mental health, self-esteem and educational outcomes of children and young people; whereas a majority of children indicate that cyberbullying is one of the biggest challenges to their mental health;

Y. whereas platform designs and algorithmic amplification, which prioritise engagement over safety, can lead to the normalisation of hateful and misogynistic content; whereas online gaming environments may expose minors to harassment and gender-based violence, while certain persuasive design features may increase the time and intensity of such exposure;

Z. whereas in March 2026, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and Google liable for harms linked to addictive and manipulative design features of social media platforms used by children and young people; whereas this ruling constitutes a significant development in the growing international debate on the responsibility of online platforms to ensure a safe digital environment for minors; whereas several European countries are also stepping up judicial, regulatory and parliamentary actions to address addictive design features and other online harms affecting children and young people;

AA. whereas, according to General Recommendation No. 1 on the digital dimension of violence against women, adopted on 20 October 2021 by the Council of Europe’s Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, manifestations of gender-based violence perpetrated in the digital sphere fall within the scope of the Istanbul Convention;

AB. whereas 1 in 10 women have experienced cyberviolence since the age of 15, and 52 % of young women and girls have experienced online abuse – 68 % of which took place on social media platforms; whereas reports from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and the European Institute for Gender Equality indicate that women and girls are the primary victims of online sexual harassment and blackmail, which often leads to severe psychological impacts, including fear and anxiety, as well as lasting damage to reputation, and a withdrawal from online spaces and public life;

AC. whereas studies carried out in several Member States show that minors have access to pornographic content, sometimes involuntarily, at a very young age, which might trigger harmful sexual behaviours, and increase aggression and sexual violence; whereas pressure to share intimate images, and the non-consensual sharing of such images through mainstream platforms, may shape attitudes towards relationships and consent in ways that disproportionately perpetuate violence against women and girls;

AD. whereas access to health education, including age-appropriate sexual education, can contribute to the well-being and autonomy of young people, while fully respecting national competences;

AE. whereas excessive social media use, exposure to harmful content and the ability to construct and disseminate hyperrealistic bodies through filters and avatars may be associated with elevated risks of depression, anxiety, loneliness, poor sleep and sedentary behaviours; whereas fast-paced online environments and algorithmic designs favouring instant gratification can lead to the deterioration of cognitive and interpersonal skills, negatively affect academic performance and hinder the development of critical thinking;

AF. whereas excessive screen time may limit free play, participation in sports and face-to-face interactions, which are essential for overall well-being; whereas research indicates that digital self-harm significantly increases the likelihood of suicidal thoughts and attempts;

AG. whereas the Commission’s 2024 fitness check of EU consumer law on digital fairness reveals that only 20 % of influencers systematically indicate the commercial nature of their content; whereas social media influencers significantly affect and shape young people’s behaviours, consumption habits and opinions, and therefore bear responsibility for ensuring transparency regarding paid partnerships and accountability for the content they promote; whereas content creators, while often distinct from influencers in that they primarily produce informational, educational, cultural or entertainment content, rather than commercially driven endorsements, play an increasingly important role in fostering creativity, access to information, cultural diversity and educational content online, particularly among minors and young audiences;

AH. whereas the phenomenon of ‘kidfluencers’ involves early public exposure and commercialisation, risking economic and emotional exploitation without consent; whereas minors below minimum age requirements often operate as ‘kidfluencers’ on platforms where legal safeguards may be insufficient or inconsistently applied, raising serious concerns regarding their privacy and commercial exploitation;

AI. whereas for the purposes of this report, ‘sharenting’ describes the practice of parents or caregivers broadly and systematically sharing information and images of their children online, with the objective of monetary gain through the generation of user engagement; whereas such practices raise serious concerns about consent and the child’s right to privacy, as it may expose children to grooming, identity theft or reputational harm, and may have lasting psychological impact;

AJ. whereas it is crucial to raise awareness among parents regarding the fact that posting pictures of their children online may involve significant risks, as once such images are shared publicly, they may be used in ways that are entirely beyond their control; whereas sharing photos without commercial intent is not, however, in itself harmful, and parents should retain the freedom to decide what to share;

AK. whereas there is an urgent need for a clearer legal framework to address the use of minors’ images by ‘parent influencers’ and ‘family influencers’, in order to prevent exploitation and protect children’s privacy;

AL. whereas a clear distinction should be maintained between the terms ‘age assurance’, ‘age verification’, ‘age estimation’ and ‘self-declaration’; whereas age assurance serves as an umbrella term encompassing methods such as self-declaration, age estimation and age verification; whereas age estimation may rely on probabilistic methods, including AI-based or behavioural analysis, while age verification methods require evidence of age, which may include official documents or digital identity solutions, while ensuring privacy-preserving and proportionate approaches;

AM. whereas several mechanisms introduced by online platforms to control access are easily circumvented, and children below the official age limits hold social media accounts by misrepresenting their age; whereas such widespread access to age-inappropriate content, fake profiles and anonymous accounts increases the risk of harmful conduct;

AN. whereas minors should enjoy equal levels of protection regardless of where they live; whereas several Member States have already adopted national laws and called for a common European approach regarding digital majority – a minimum age limit for accessing social media and other online services;

AO. whereas age verification is not a ‘silver bullet’ for ensuring the protection of minors online, and should not be contemplated in isolation, but rather in line with children’s rights and a safety-by-design approach, and on a risk-based and case-by-case basis; whereas there is a need for reliable, privacy-preserving and proportionate solutions that comply with the principles of personal data protection;

AP. whereas safety, privacy and age-appropriate-by-design approaches should be the norm, including, among other things, the setting of profiles to private by default, thereby hindering contact from strangers, and the deactivation of the profiling recommender system by default;

AQ. whereas parental control tools are an important complement to platform and policy measures in protecting minors online; whereas the market currently offers a wide variety of parental-control apps and device settings with differing functionality and usability;

AR. whereas video games constitute a major social interaction space; whereas certain monetisation models such as ‘loot boxes’ present risks comparable to gambling by replicating randomised reward mechanics, which can foster compulsive behaviour in minors; whereas the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) system remains a key tool for age-appropriate decision-making regarding video game content;

AS. whereas live video game streaming platforms frequently fail to implement effective age verification mechanisms, allowing minors to access adult-oriented, sexualised or gambling-adjacent content; whereas this represents a distinct regulatory gap;

AT. whereas, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 11 % of adolescents show signs of problematic social media behaviour and 12 % are at risk of problematic gaming, with boys (16 %) being significantly more likely to be affected than girls (7 %); whereas gaming disorder is officially recognised as such by the WHO;

AU. whereas social media features such as infinite scrolling, autoplay, recommender systems or profiling-based algorithms, compulsive notifications and reward-based mechanisms are designed to maximise engagement and monetise attention; whereas 97 % of the most popular apps used by EU consumers employ at least one dark pattern;

AV. whereas exposure to such features is driven by deliberate targeting by online platforms and exacerbated by algorithms that can boost harmful content, and must therefore be subject to risk assessments and transparency obligations under the DSA and the AI Act;

AW. whereas certain digital practices undermine consumer autonomy by manipulating choice architecture, including through deceptive default settings, false urgency and misleading interface design;

AX. whereas the Commission has committed to a Digital Fairness Act in order to tackle unethical practices, including dark patterns, influencer marketing and addictive design, which exploit the vulnerabilities of consumers, including those who are minors;

AY. whereas online platforms do not always provide effective safety features; whereas certain tracking and profiling practices raise serious privacy concerns; whereas tackling addictive design and dark patterns requires coordinated EU action; whereas media service providers, particularly audiovisual media services providers, are subject to more stringent obligations; whereas the level of protection of minors varies, depending on the source and location of content;

AZ. whereas digital, media and AI literacy, including an understanding of algorithms and algorithmic biases, is crucial for empowering young people to make good use of digital services; whereas such literacy provides the necessary skills and tools to understand risks and opportunities, fostering critical thinking to navigate online spaces responsibly and withstand manipulation, misinformation, disinformation and profiling;

BA. whereas digital and media literacy education should extend to parents, guardians, educators, youth workers and social service providers, who often lack the support and training to address these issues; whereas such training should incorporate critical thinking, resilience and AI awareness to help young people manage online interactions;

BB. whereas school-wide approaches to digital balance, including clear policies on smartphone use, can create calmer learning environments, protect students’ attention and strengthen social cohesion; whereas the ability to consciously disengage from digital tools is recognised in the European Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp 2.2) as a core competence for well-being and safety, supporting concentration, healthy sleep and social connection;

BC. whereas digital citizenship education is essential for equipping young people with the knowledge and skills necessary to participate responsibly and critically in democratic life; whereas this supports resilience against disinformation, hate speech and manipulation online while strengthening democratic engagement, informed trust in institutions, fundamental rights and shared European values;

General principles

1. Stresses that addressing the impact of social media on young people requires an integrated European strategy, which combines safety and privacy-by-design, safety by-default, age-appropriate design, algorithmic transparency and privacy-first age verification mechanisms, and which strengthens mental well-being, digital and media literacy that involves families, schools and educators, and participatory governance and evidence-based evaluation to ensure equal protection and empowerment for all;

EU legal framework