{"id":469159,"date":"2026-10-23T16:03:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T14:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/10\/23\/lappello-di-bruxelles-evitare-legislazioni-frammentate-nellue-sulla-sicurezza-dei-minori-online\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T16:47:01","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T14:47:01","slug":"brussels-call-avoid-fragmented-legislation-across-the-eu-on-child-safety-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/10\/23\/brussels-call-avoid-fragmented-legislation-across-the-eu-on-child-safety-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Brussels\u2019 call: \u201cAvoid fragmented legislation across the EU\u201d on child safety online"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Brussels wants to press ahead with the adoption of the EU Kids Act<\/a> against online risks, and the European Commission is therefore \u201cstrongly urging the co-legislators,\u201d the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, \u201cto speed up their work, as there is no time to lose when it comes to protecting children.\u201d This was the comment made today (23 October) by the European Commission spokesperson, Thomas Regnier<\/strong>, during the daily press briefing in response to the fact that some Member States are proceeding independently on this issue. Take Greece, for example, which today adopted a law that<\/strong> prohibits children under the age of 15 from accessing social media and which will come into force on<\/strong> 1<\/strong> January 2027<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

With regard to Athens\u2019s moves, Regnier emphasised that the EU Commission is \u201cfully in step with those Member States that wish to strengthen the protection of children in the online world, in light of the numerous risks they are exposed to.\u201d He also pointed out that many EU countries \u201chave notified the European Commission of their draft national legislation,\u201d which is \u201cassessed on the basis of our criteria,\u201d he explained. This is a key factor because, while providing \u201cdetailed recommendations and opinions to Member States and then acting accordingly,\u201d the \u201cmain objective is to avoid fragmentation of the internal market,\u201d Regnier added. <\/p>\n

The issue of online protection does not concern minors alone. Yesterday (21 October) a court in New Mexico (United States) ordered Meta<\/span> to pay a fine of<\/strong> $25 billion<\/strong> as part of a landmark case linked to the Cambridge Analytica scandal \u2013 when, in 2018<\/span><\/span>, it was revealed that the British consultancy firm had collected the personal data of 87 million Facebook accounts without their consent and had used it for political propaganda purposes. This episode comes at a time when the Trump administration continues to target the Digital Services Act (DSA) \u2013 the law governing digital services in the European Union \u2013 on the grounds that it would impose “too many obligations” on US platforms. <\/p>\n

In this context, Regnier emphasised that the Commission and the EU have \u201cthe sovereign right to legislate \u2013 which naturally also applies to the digital sector.\u201d And \u201cwe always do so in a proportionate manner.\u201d Furthermore, \u201cour regulatory and enforcement activities are not based on nationality, but on the issue at hand.\u201d Therefore, both the DSA and the DMA<\/strong> \u2013 the European Digital Markets Act, designed to ensure fairer and more competitive digital markets \u2013 apply \u201cto US companies, Asian companies, Chinese companies and, of course, European companies too,”<\/strong> he noted. According to Reigner, the inquiry <\/strong>by the European Commission against Meta two years ago for breaching the DSA led to \u201cthe same conclusion being reached as on the other side of the Atlantic.\u201d Therefore, \u201cif a company is able to offer guarantees in the United States, we expect those guarantees to be offered in Europe as well,\u201d he concluded. <\/p>\n

It is not just a matter of complying with the DSA; online platforms must also be held accountable for their role in relation to the protests that have spread across Europe in recent days<\/strong>. In this case, \u201cthe primary responsibility lies with companies and online platforms,\u201d Reigner clarified, emphasising that platforms must ensure that \u201ctheir systems, algorithms and services are not misused in such a context.\u201d The regulation also \u201cprovides Member States with a veritable \u2018toolkit\u2019 that they can draw upon should they deem it necessary; for example, under the DSA, law enforcement authorities can issue orders to online platforms to obtain specific information.\u201d In all this, \u201cthe Commission\u2019s role is to support Member States where necessary, which is why we have held meetings, for example, with the French authority,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

For the EU, the dialogue on digital issues is complex not only with the United States, but also with China<\/strong>. This summer, the People\u2019s Republic established an international intergovernmental body dedicated to artificial intelligence, the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO), which is committed to global governance and collaboration in the field of AI. The founding members include China and various countries from the Global South (including Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, South Africa and others in Asia, Africa, and Latin America), and the number of participating states has since grown in the weeks that followed. The European Union does not feature on this list. \u201cWe have not received any formal invitation,\u201d said the spokesperson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among the countries taking action is Greece, which has passed a law banning children under the age of 15 from accessing social media; the law is due to come into force on 1 January 2027<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":469146,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25710],"tags":[25871,26940,27171,26087,36363,27368,34798,35217,26326],"class_list":["post-469159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-net-tech-en","tag-law-on-digital-services-en","tag-dma-en","tag-dsa-en","tag-legge-europea-sui-bambini","tag-meta-en","tag-minori-online","tag-palazzo-berlaymont","tag-states-united-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469159"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469160,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469159\/revisions\/469160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}