The United Nations human rights office on Friday warned that blocking children from social media is not a substitute for making online platforms safer.
This is as the agency unveiled a 10-point framework that calls on governments and technology companies to strengthen protections for children in digital spaces.
See the 10 point framework at the end of the story:
The guidelines, titled Getting Children’s Safety Online Right, were issued as age-based social media restrictions continue to expand around the world.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the risks children face online stem from decisions made by companies rather than unavoidable features of digital life, a report on the agency’s website disclosed this.
“Online harms to kids’ safety, privacy and wellbeing result from design choices and business practices that undermine safety, including addictive design features such as infinite scroll, autoplay, and persistent notifications,” he said.
According to the UN human rights office, the framework urges governments and tech companies to move “further and faster” to protect children online.
The release noted that Australia barred children under 16 from social media platforms in December 2025, while Indonesia and Malaysia have followed suit.
More than a dozen other countries are considering similar measures.
But Türk warned that restrictions based solely on age may not address the underlying problems.
“Simply limiting access to platforms that remain unsafe cannot stand as the endpoint,” he said.
He also cautioned that such bans “can be easily circumvented” and may push children toward “riskier, less monitored spaces.”
Platform design
Peggy Hicks, Director of Thematic Engagement and Special Procedures at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said technology companies face a clear decision.
“Change how their platforms are designed and operated to better protect children’s rights and safety – or be forced to do so through increasingly restrictive legislation and regulatory fines,” she told reporters in Geneva.
The guidelines call for safety measures to be incorporated into platform design from the outset, rather than relying on children and parents to manage risks on their own.
Among the recommendations are mandatory child rights impact assessments, tightly regulated age-verification systems designed to reduce privacy risks, and meaningful consultation with children when governments develop regulatory responses.
Hicks said the rapid evolution of digital technologies, including artificial intelligence and chatbots, requires policymakers to remain responsive.
“We need to collect the evidence and adapt quickly to what we learn,” she said.
Online reports that the growing concern over underage social media use has sparked intense debate worldwide, with supporters advocating stricter regulations to protect young users from online harms and critics warning against limiting digital access and freedoms.
In response, nations across the globe are formulating and implementing policies—including age restrictions, verification requirements, and platform accountability measures—to address the challenges associated with youth engagement on social media.
1. FOCUS ON PLATFORM DESIGN TO CREATE A SAFER ONLINE ENVIRONMENT
Require platforms to make digital environments safer by design – rather than placing the burden
on children and parents. Regulations should require rights-respecting business practices, including
by addressing addictive design (such as infinite scroll, autoplay, and persistent notifications) and
tightly regulating online marketing targeting children.
2. GROUNDING REGULATION IN CHILDREN’S RIGHTS
Effective regulation needs to be grounded in children’s rights (see box), which apply online as they
do offline. This means an approach that takes account of children’s evolving capacities and their
rights to access information, express themselves, and to participate.
3. PROTECT DATA PRIVACY
Maximum protection of children’s data should be required as a default setting. The ‘micro-targeting’
of children for commercial purposes – the profiling and targeting of children of any age based on a
digital record of their actual or inferred characteristics – should not be permitted. Where data is
collected, it must be minimized, purpose-limited, and subject to the highest safeguards, with
children and parents afforded genuine control over how personal data is used.
4. MANDATE HUMAN RIGHTS DUE DILIGENCE BY COMPANIES
Require child rights impact assessments as part of broader human rights due diligence by
companies – conducted on a rolling basis ahead of platforms introducing new tools and features
or substantially modifying existing apps – with public reporting on the specific impacts of platforms
on children, and clear consequences for non-compliance.
5. PUT GUARDRAILS AROUND AGE VERIFICATION SYSTEMS
Where age verification is used, strict requirements relating to collection and storage of data need
to be in place to protect privacy. Transparency relating to those providing age-verification services,
particularly when outsourced to third-parties, is essential, as are mechanisms for accountability.
Age verification systems should be assessed to understand their human rights impacts, including
to ensure they are non-discriminatory and that solutions are available for those who may lack formal
documents.
6. TARGET AGE RESTRICTIONS TO SPECIFIC HARMS
Age-based restrictions on children’s access to specific services or content should be targeted to
clearly identified harms, as is the case with existing restrictions relating to pornography and
gambling. Emerging concerns such as restrictions on AI chatbot use or addictive design features
may similarly warrant age restrictions or design changes to the specific features or services at
issue.
7. GIVE CHILDREN A VOICE AND LISTEN TO WHAT THEY SAY
Children have the right to be heard, including on how digital environments are designed, governed
and regulated, and must have a say in shaping the digital world that shapes their lives. Children
should be consulted in regulatory processes relating to them, and their views on the impact of
regulations once implemented should be collected and meaningfully considered.
8. REQUIRE TRANSPARENCY
Require platforms to ensure transparency about their design and data practices, and to enable
independent scrutiny of these systems. This includes meaningful information about content
moderation, recommender systems, and features that affect children, in a way that can be
understood by regulators, researchers and the public at large.
9. INCLUDE OVERSIGHT AND ENSURE ACCOUNTABILITY
All the above must be supported by regular reporting mechanisms and subject to effective remedies
and independent oversight, with legal consequences that serve as deterrents.
10. RELY ON AND COLLECT EVIDENCE TO IMPROVE RESPONSES
This is an evolving space, and regulators need to continually assess what approaches will best
protect children. This requires companies to allow access for independent researchers,
transparency by companies, and prompt action based on evidence that is collected.
Safer digital space for children and for us all
These steps, taken together, provide a pathway for regulation that enhances protection of children online
while avoiding some of the pitfalls that arise in this complex space, such as across-the-board approaches
that can inadvertently push kids to riskier, less monitored platforms and can be easy to circumvent.
We need approaches that do more than block access for some children, while leaving behind platforms
that remain unsafe for those who circumvent the bans and for the rest of us. Online harms to children are
not innate or inevitable. These ten steps provide a guide to navigating our way to safer online space for
children and for us all.