Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Added70. Calls on the Commission to clarify the interplay between existing legislation regulating targeted advertising and manipulative design, including dark patterns, in order to close further legal gaps in the rules and their implementation, and, where appropriate, to address the practices that target children and young people; calls on online platforms to provide users with the functionality to choose between different recommender systems, including trustworthy, child-focused options; calls, furthermore, for the establishment of mandatory safe default settings for recommender systems;

AddedVideo games

Added71. Recognises that video games constitute a major part of young people’s online leisure and social interaction, and combine creative, social and competitive elements; points out that video games fall under the scope of the DSA when they qualify as an intermediary service or platform; stresses, however, that providers of video games that do not meet these criteria are not bound by the rules set out in the DSA; calls on the Commission, where applicable, to ensure minimum DSA-equivalent obligations for all online video games, regardless of whether or not they qualify as an online platform under the DSA;

Added72. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to regulate online games and applications that incorporate paid purchase or reward systems (loot boxes and other randomised content, such as wheels of fortune, prize wheels and packs of cards), which induce compulsive behaviour in minors and expose them to forms of digital gambling; calls for the evaluation of potential measures, such as the mandatory disclosure of odds and the explicit labelling of randomised reward mechanics as a means of protection for minors;

Added73. Encourages the adoption of the PEGI age-rating system across online storefronts, platforms and consoles, and calls for its increased visibility; calls on the Commission to work with PEGI and the competent national authorities to ensure that age ratings are prominent in digital storefront metadata and that age controls are interoperable across platforms;

Added74. Encourages the video game industry to develop a voluntary code of conduct for online multiplayer games and streaming services, in consultation with children, educators, researchers and civil society, covering moderation standards, child-friendly reporting mechanisms, escalation procedures and recommended technical safeguards, such as default chat muting for minors and keyword filters;

Added75. Calls for collaboration among video game designers, publishers, platforms, national competent authorities and the Commission, to help mitigate the risks of gaming disorders; calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop awareness-raising campaigns to ensure that parents and guardians are equipped to identify risks and provide support;

Civic engagement and democratic participation

Change 10

Removed14. Notes that social media plays a key role in youth mobilisations and awareness campaigns, demonstrating its power to drive meaningful participation; highlights that social media can both facilitate and hinder youth political engagement;

Added76. Notes that online platforms may serve as important channels for civic education and critical thinking, enabling young people to engage in civic and political life; highlights the need to maintain a free and pluralist social and digital environment; warns, however, of the risks posed by disinformation, fake news and online harassment, which could hinder engagement;

Removed15. Warns that algorithmic biases and intense content personalisation increase the risk of youth radicalisation and polarisation;

Added77. Emphasises that, according to several academic studies, some recommender systems of major online platforms have been shown to favour extreme content, as such content leads to increased user engagement and therefore increased profits, which increases the risk of youth radicalisation, e.g. through an ‘echo chambers’ effect; calls on the Commission to prioritise the enforcement of the DSA and to strengthen its corresponding guidelines against engagement-based algorithms driven by clicks, views and interactions, which fail to sufficiently protect users against addiction, radicalisation and disinformation; stresses that criminal networks, extremists, terrorists and traffickers exploit online environments to target, manipulate or recruit minors; calls for the detection, reporting and removal of such illegal content to be strengthened, in full respect of the DSA and the Charter;

Inclusion, equity and accessibility

Change 11

Removed16. Stresses the importance of fair representation of minorities and marginalised identities in social media spaces to foster inclusion and belonging;

Added78. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to adopt targeted and inclusive measures to protect children and young people in vulnerable situations in the digital environment, including by ensuring safe, accessible and inclusive online spaces, promoting fair representation, developing and supporting awareness-raising campaigns, and guaranteeing rapid, affordable and geographically accessible mental health and psychological support services; stresses the need to ensure that digital, media and AI literacy programmes are equally accessible to all children and young people, paying particular attention to those most at risk; underlines the importance of collecting disaggregated data, including by gender and age, as well as, where appropriate, by racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, sex characteristics and disability, in full respect of privacy safeguards, when conducting research, in order to better understand differential impacts on vulnerable groups and inform targeted policy responses;

Removed[Section for FEMM opinion]

Added79. Stresses that anti-gypsyism constitutes a specific form of racism, rooted in the historical discrimination and social exclusion of Roma and Traveller communities; underlines that anti-gypsyism often remains undetected, as it is not always recognised as a form of discrimination by institutions or the wider public; stresses, therefore, the need to provide regular and comprehensive training for online platforms, content reviewers and relevant stakeholders on the detection, recognition and effective response to anti-gypsyism, in order to ensure equal protection and accountability; stresses that organisations representing groups with limited resources, including minority and marginalised communities, such as the Roma community, should not be disadvantaged in efforts to combat online hate;

Removed17. Highlights that girls and young women are more exposed to social media harms, including body image pressure, harassment, and misogynistic content; stresses the need for gender-sensitive digital safeguards to ensure safe, inclusive and empowering online environments for all young users;

Education, digital skills and media literacy

Change 12

Removed18. Highlights the key role of both formal and non-formal education in equipping young people with the digital skills and the critical thinking needed to navigate social media safely and effectively;

Added80. Recalls that the Member States have an obligation, under the AVMSD, to promote media literacy and take such measures at national level; emphasises, furthermore, that the Member States have an obligation to report to the Commission on these measures, and to determine if those need to be further reinforced and expanded; calls on the European Board for Media Services to intensify cooperation on the exchange of best practices, and to foster the development and use of effective measures and tools to strengthen these competences; notes that efforts to empower users through media literacy and content labelling vary widely across online platforms and result in a lack of transparency on geographic scope, user engagement and measurable outcomes; calls on audiovisual media service providers and VSPs to comply with their obligations under the AVMSD and the EU Code of Practice on Disinformation;

Added81. Calls on the Member States and online platforms to establish regular consultations with children, young people and parents when designing age-appropriate safety features, reporting tools and educational materials, ensuring that such solutions reflect their actual needs and patterns of technology use;

Added82. Highlights the key role of both formal and non-formal education in equipping children and young people with the digital, media and AI literacy skills needed to navigate social media and online environments safely and effectively, including critical thinking, reading comprehension and the ability to protect themselves in digital environments from manipulation, disinformation and profiling;

Added83. Highlights the importance of reinforcing financial literacy in formal and non-formal education systems, in order to mitigate risks linked to emerging digital and AI-driven environments;

Added84. Underlines the need to provide continuing digital, media and AI literacy programmes for professionals working with children and young people on online safety, disinformation, AI, cyberbullying, critical engagement with digital content, awareness of persuasive, addictive and manipulative design, and emotional profiling, in order to strengthen digital pedagogy and promote safe classroom practices, and to enable informed professional judgements on when and how to make the best use of digital tools in education and youth work; encourages schools and youth organisations to make digital, media and AI literacy a mandatory component of school curricula from an early age;

Added85. Highlights the importance of ensuring that young people have access to reliable, evidence-based and age-appropriate information on sexual and reproductive health and rights; stresses that, in the absence of trustworthy sources, young people may turn to social media content that is inaccurate, misleading or harmful;

Added86. Calls on the Member States to consider introducing clear rules on the use of mobile devices in schools, particularly at early and primary education levels, which may include exceptions for educational purposes, and to ensure secure internet networks and safe device storage; stresses the need to monitor the effects of such measures on learning, concentration and peer-related online violence;

Added87. Underlines the importance of providing easily accessible education for parents, guardians and caregivers, in order to foster resilience against misinformation and disinformation; stresses that such education should cover technical aspects, such as privacy settings, to build trust and open communication with children about their online experiences, risk awareness and reporting mechanisms;

Added88. Invites the Member States to promote regular dialogues between parents, guardians, schools and youth organisations, on daily routines such as device-free time, bedtime practices and notification management, in order to support healthier social media use;

Added89. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to reinforce and implement existing digital literacy programmes, including the EU Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027 and the EU’s Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) strategy, by supporting Safer Internet Centres and campaigns such as Safer Internet Day, and the development of new age-appropriate programmes and interactive educational tools, co-designed with educators and civil society; highlights the importance of a stronger role of Erasmus+ and other EU youth programmes in this context, as they promote democratic engagement and cross-border dialogue among young people; welcomes the upcoming European school alliances pilot and calls on the Commission to prioritise digital and media literacy within this framework to foster innovative teaching methods, curricula and competence frameworks;

Added90. Urges the Commission to deliver on the actions set out in its action plan on basic skills and its inclusion therein of digital skills, in particular the guidelines and best practices on advancing the assessment of digital skills in education and the updating of the European Digital Competence Framework to take into account emerging technologies; stresses the need to support local community centres for children and young people, in order to provide safe offline spaces and alternatives to excessive social media use;

Transparency and algorithmic accountability

Change 13

Changed19.91. Stresses the need for increased transparency around social media algorithmic systems, as opaque algorithms and content moderation hinder young users’the ability of young users to comprehend why certain content is recommended, suppressed or removed, thus undermining their capacity to navigate online content intentionally;in accordance with their own intentions; calls for robust external auditing mechanisms and strengthened oversight through the European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency;

Change 14

Added92. Recalls that Article 27 DSA requires that users should be given meaningful control over recommender systems, including the possibility to choose alternative systems not based on profiling, and encourages platforms to make such options prominent and accessible, particularly for minors; calls for the establishment of mandatory safe default settings for recommender systems for minors’ accounts;

Added93. Calls on online platforms to grant accredited researchers access to aggregated data on the exposure of minors to algorithmic systems, in compliance with data protection rules, to enable the independent analysis of the impact of algorithms and persuasive platform design on minors, and stresses the importance of transparency, in this regard;

Added94. Supports the introduction for online platforms of a ‘youth mode’, disabling targeted advertising and limiting addictive design features for minors;

Monitoring and policy implementation

Change 15

Changed20.95. Calls on the Commission to assess the effectiveness of the BIK+ strategy and, where relevant, the EU Youth Strategy, in addressing current online risks for young people, and to align itsthe evaluationimplementation of those strategies with evolving challenges, such as algorithmic harms and persuasive design; stresses the need for systematic monitoring across the Member States, including through the development of comparable indicators on children’s digital habits, access to education and the effectiveness of protection measures, including the implementation of age restrictions, age-verification tools and safety settings;

Change 16

Added96. Urges the Commission, the European Board for Digital Services, the European Board for Media Services and the relevant national authorities to strengthen coordination, and monitor and assess the effectiveness of measures taken by online platforms; stresses the importance of ensuring continuous monitoring and rapid-response capabilities to address disinformation and harmful content, including through the development of an EU monitoring mechanism with common indicators on online child protection measures, such as age-verification tools and safety settings, and on the impact of these measures on children’s well-being and privacy; calls for the involvement of children, young people and parents in the design, implementation and monitoring of policies related to the protection of minors in the digital environment;

Added97. Welcomes the EU-wide inquiry into the broader impacts of social media on the well-being of young people; emphasises the need for comprehensive, cross-disciplinary research into the long-term neurological and psychological impacts of digital consumption; calls on the Commission and the Member States to support longitudinal studies to develop evidence-based guidelines for digital platform design; calls on the Commission to issue European, evidence-based, state-of-the-art health guidelines on screen-use for minors and for digital platform design;

Added98. Stresses the need to strengthen and coordinate existing EU research capacities, including within the Commission’s Joint Research Centre, to monitor the impact of online platforms and algorithmic systems on the well-being of children and young people, and to support evidence-based guidance for the Member States;

Added99. Calls on the Commission to regularly report on progress made in protecting minors on social media; encourages the establishment of specialised training for law enforcement and judicial authorities on social media dynamics to improve the detection of harmful and illegal activities, such as grooming and cybercrime, while strictly respecting the principles of legality, proportionality and judicial oversight;

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Change 17

Changed21.100. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.Commission, and to the governments and parliaments of the Member States.