A recent study in Spain indicates that nine out of ten adults believe that children and teenagers browse the internet without sufficient protection. The majority support implementing parental controls, defining a minimum age for social media, and regulating digital advertising. The debate on child safety online is once again in the spotlight.
Parental controls and age verification: technical solutions in progress 🔒
Platforms are exploring biometric verification systems and behavioral analysis to confirm user age. Parental controls are being integrated at the operating system and router level, allowing content filtering and time restrictions. However, implementing a legal minimum age clashes with the ease of lying during registration. Advertising regulation, on the other hand, seeks algorithms to detect and block ads targeting minors without consent.
Minors online: protected by a digital colander 🧒
While adults clamor for measures, minors already know how to bypass parental controls better than a novice hacker. The minimum age is circumvented with a click and a fake birth year. The only thing that seems to be effectively regulated is advertising, which reaches them before they can say I want. Perhaps the solution is to ask them for advice to protect them themselves.