Katarina Barley

G b. whereas, according to the 2021 WeProtect survey, over half of young people had experienced some form of sexual harm online in their childhood; whereas girls are particularly vulnerable to...

12 a. Recognises the role of helplines and hotlines in combatting cyberbullying and supporting victims; stresses the importance of adequate funding and support at national and EU levels;

12 b. Acknowledges the specific vulnerabilities of groups of children disproportionately affected by cyberbullying: girls, LGBTIQ+ children, children from vulnerable backgrounds, including...

12 c. Welcomes the upcoming Action Plan Against Cyberbullying and calls on the European Commission to adopt a multi-layered approach that recognises the continuum of offline bullying and...

12 d. Calls on Member States to ensure early and victim-centered support and initiatives and foster a culture of reporting and positive bystander behaviour online, by providing school training...

12 e. Urges online platforms to ensure a swift and proportionate response to cyberbullying related content and conduct, and transparently report on the prevalence, use, enforcement actions and...

C a. whereas recent research indicates that engagement in digital self-harm, including self-cyberbullying, significantly raises the likelihood of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts;...

G. whereas cyberbullying affects a significant portion of young people; whereas according to the EU Kids online 2020 survey, carried out among children aged 9 to 16, about 1 in 10...

G a. whereas 51% of children surveyed in the Europe Kids Want survey indicated that bullying was one of the biggest challenges to their mental health, and digital technologies play a key role...

Insists that the use of the EUDI Wallet and similar age verification tools must never be a gateway to linking children’s user profiles to their legal identity, nor to profiling; recalls that...

Stresses that emerging third-party age assurance services, which can attest a user’s age, have the potential to protect privacy by limiting the amount of personal data processed; notes that...

Calls for a comprehensive ban on targeted advertising, not limited to children but applying across the board, to eliminate a major driver of manipulative design and behavioural profiling;...

Calls for the establishment of mandatory ‘safe’ default settings for recommender systems, which would require platforms to avoid optimisation for engagement or virality unless a user actively...

Recalls that the country-of-origin principle often renders unilateral attempts in digital regulation ineffective; urges the Member States to align possible age-based restrictions to ensure...

Recalls that Parliament’s mandate on the regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat CSAM proposed a risk-based approach and clear criteria for the use of age assessment systems;...

Notes that, depending on their technical design and implementation, age assurance systems can enable the tracking of users across the internet, thus creating risks for people whose safety is...

12 a. Calls on platform providers to ensure young users have access to well- functioning, transparent and child- friendly reporting mechanisms on online platforms and clear criteria for...

18. 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...

19. Stresses the need for increased transparency around social media algorithmic systems, as opaque algorithms and content moderation hinder young users’ ability to comprehend why certain content...

1. Stresses that addressing the impact of social media on everyone, but especially young people, requires a unified strategy combining safety-by-design, algorithmic...

1 b. Stresses that everyone, but especially young people, deserve a digital environment that is inclusive, safe, and respectful of their rights; recalls that Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter...

Stresses that the protection of personal data relating to minors, as well as data that can be inferred from their online behaviour, requires the highest level of safeguards, in line with the...

I b. whereas the right to privacy, including the confidentiality of communications, is a fundamental right under EU law, and any erosion of this right would undermine trust in digital services...

Stresses that it is essential to distinguish clearly between age assurance and age verification, as they involve very different levels of intrusiveness and implications for privacy; points out...

7. Welcomes the July 2025 Commission guidelines pursuant to Article 28 DSA as a key step in strengthening child protection online, particularly on VSPs and social media, offering practical tools to...

C. whereas although social media enables young users to exercise their freedom of expression and of information, it also exposes them to a wide range of harmful...

2. Stresses the need to ensure consistency across key EU legal instruments, such as the GDPR, the AVMSD, the Directive on privacy and electronic communications, the DSA and...

I c. whereas end-to-end encryption plays a crucial role in ensuring children’s safety online by protecting them from exploitation and their personal communications from interception and being...

Stresses the need for a uniform approach at EU level to avoid legal uncertainty and fragmentation through national laws overlapping with the EU’s legal framework and to achieve a uniform level...

Regrets that, since the GDPR’s entry into force in 2018, many providers have inadequately implemented its requirements – such as the requirement for parental consent, which indirectly protects...