Digital Protection of Children: New Bill

Bill 4691-D-2025, presented by federal deputy Adolfo Bermejo, has the main objective of introducing a progressive regulation on minors’ access to social media and digital platforms. The Bill proposes regulating the use of social media and digital platforms according to minors’ age and level of maturity:
 

• Children under 14 years of age: they may not have personal accounts on social media, except with judicial authorization in exceptional cases involving the overriding interests of the child.
• Adolescents from 14 to 16 years of age: they may have personal accounts and access social media only with verifiable parental consent, through a reliable procedure of identification of the adult in charge.
• Over 16 years of age: they will be able to have personal accounts and free access, but under a protective digital environment, until they reach the legal age of adulthood.

The Bill also seeks to establish a default protective digital environment applicable to the three categories of minors, that is, regardless of their level of maturity. To this end, digital platforms must guarantee by default safe digital environments for minors that includes, at least:

1. configurating profiles in private mode,
2. disenabling addictive design features, such as infinite scrolling,
3. deactivating push notifications between 10:00 PM and 8:00 AM,
4. providing an accessible control panel for parents or guardians to manage screen time and privacy settings.

The Bill also incorporates obligations for other subjects of the digital environment. In particular, it establishes that device manufacturers will have to include free native parental controls, and internet service providers (ISPs) will have to offer home content filters at no additional cost.

In addition, the Bill includes provisions to promote social awareness and educate minors, teachers, and parents in the use of social media and digital platforms, by creating the Federal Program for Citizenship and Digital Welfare, within the Ministry of Education. With this, the Bill seeks to include digital hygiene, online emotional resilience, algorithmic literacy, and risk prevention in school programs.

Finally, the Bill provides that an enforcement authority will have to be appointed to audit, sanction, and supervise non-compliant companies. The fines may reach up to 4% of the annual global turnover of the infringing platforms, and it is determined that the funds collected will go to a Fund for Youth Wellbeing and Creativity, aimed at cultural, sports, and mental health prevention programs.