Il 07 giugno 2024 si è svolto a Palermo l’ ANNUAL CONGRESS U.A.E. – European Lawyers’ Union, dal titolo “Artificial intelligence, smart contracts, blockchain and cyber security awareness. Evaluation and future perspective”.
Il Presidente della Camera Minorile “Orazio Campo” di Palermo, Avv. Serena Lombardo, nella qualità di componente del Direttivo U.N.C.M. – Unione Nazionale delle Camere Minorili, è intervenuta con un importante contributo in lingua inglese sulla normativa italiana che disciplina l’uso dei digital media da parte dei minori.
Di seguito la relazione integrale dell’Avv. Serena Lombardo.
“CHILDREN AND DIGITAL MEDIA
With “digital media”, or “new media”, we mean the new means of communication such as multimedia as well as interactive, linked to technology and the Internet.
According to the report published by Save the Children on the occasion of the recent Safer Internet Day the average age of the first online access is lowering, whereas the average time spent online by younger people is increasing.
In Italy, despite the Legislative Decree no. 101/2018, which provides that the minimum age for accessing social networks is 14 years old, in reality, numerous pre-adolescents have opened a profile indicating an older age: 40% of 11–13-year-olds in Italy use social media, with a female prevalence (47%).
Therefore, it was essential to introduce adequate legislation to protect minor users of telematic services.
In Italy, we have two new regulatory texts:
- The “Digital Service Act” (DSA);
- The Caivano Decree, containing “Provisions for the safety of minors in the digital sector”.
The Digital Service Act wants to create a safer digital space for all users of digital services and pays particular attention to the need to protect minors.
The above-mentioned norm states: “The protection of minors is an important policy objective of the Union” and suggests:
– “Providers of intermediary services that are primarily directed at minors, for example through the design or marketing of the service, or which are used predominantly by minors, should make particular efforts to render the explanation of their terms and conditions easily understandable to minors”.
– “Providers of online platforms used by minors should take appropriate and proportionate measures to protect minors, for example when designing their online interfaces. They should assure the highest level of privacy, safety and the highest standards security.
– “Providers of online platforms should not present advertisements based on profiling using personal data of the recipient of the service when they are sure that the recipient of the service is a minor”.
In Italy, according to the Law n. 159/2023, the providers of electronic communications services should make parental control applications available in order to guarantee a safe digital environment for minors, these are useful tools which allow parents, or those who exercise parental responsibility, to control minors’ access to the Internet contents, by choosing digital spaces and times of use.
The same law bans access to minors to pornographic content, as it “undermines respect for their dignity and compromises their physical and mental well-being, constituting a public health problem”. Therefore website managers and providers of video sharing platforms, which disseminate pornographic content, should verify the age of majority of the users.
Finally, the Caivano Decree promotes digital and media literacy for the protection of minors, which determined that the Council of Ministers must launch studies and develop guidelines aimed at users of electronic communication devices and parental control applications.
Therefore it annually supports information campaigns on the conscious use of the internet and the associated risks.
The regulatory systems above analyzed certainly constitute an important step forward in the protection of minors online, who, as we know, are the most exposed to the dangers of the Internet.
However, this is still not enough, as the need of protection requires further effort to make the use of digital media increasingly safer for our children.
Avv. Serena Lombardo”
