Denmark wants stricter enforcement of the EU Digital Services Act (DSA) as part of a range of proposed measures to better protect children online as it started chairing meetings of EU ministers this month.
Caroline Stage Olsen, the country’s digital minister, told the European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) committee on Tuesday that Denmark has put several child protection measures on top of the agenda during the country's chairmanship.
“I will use the presidency to put this on top of the agenda and set a clear, political ambition that can shape EU policy in the years to come,” Stage Olsen said.
“We will try to facilitate discussions to have a stronger legal framework to protect children online, for example related to the upcoming Digital Fairness Act,” she said, adding that this framework can help make age verification tools mandatory.
Denmark will also push for EU countries to adopt a joint declaration on the protection of minors online during the informal telecom ministers meeting in October.
“The aim is to provide political guidance on this important theme,” Stage Olsen said.
Another workshop held in Brussels by the end of the year will follow up on the political guidance and is aimed to contribute to the work the European Commission has done on online safety for minors.
On Monday, the Commission presented further guidance to online platforms on how to protect minors, addressing issues such as addictive design, cyber bullying and harmful content.
The guidelines under the DSA, EU-wide legislation that aims to combat illegal content and products, come after the EU executive opened a number of investigations into potential breaches of the DSA in areas related to child protection.
Last year, it began investigating Meta’s Facebook and Instagram because it suspects that their algorithms may stimulate behavioural addictions in children, as well as create so-called "rabbit-hole effects".
