GENEVA – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday called for more robust measures by both States and tech companies to make online platforms safer for children, insisting on effective regulation, oversight and accountability.
“The digital world that connects children to learning, community, and creativity also exposes them to real risks to their safety, privacy, and wellbeing,” Türk said. “Online harms to kids’ safety, privacy and wellbeing are not innate or inevitable; they result from design choices and business practices that undermine safety, including addictive design features, such as infinite scroll, autoplay, and persistent notifications from apps.”
“Enhancing protection of children online is an urgent priority that we need to make sure not only gets done – but that it gets done right,” he added.
To ensure the approaches to these complex issues are grounded in human rights, the Office has issued a set of guidelines to enhance children’s safety online and protect their rights.
“Blanket social media bans are not a one-off panacea for what is a multifaceted issue. Simply limiting access to platforms that remain unsafe cannot stand as the endpoint in effectively protecting children. We need much wider action – by Governments and companies – to ensure that the platforms themselves are made safer by design, that data is protected, that those responsible for harm can held to account, and that children’s rights and needs are fully respected throughout.”
Türk pointed out that regulations focusing solely on the ages of those who have access to specific digital tools and platforms can leave unaltered the design choices and algorithmic practices that render the platforms unsafe in the first place.
“States need to require tech companies to embed safety into their platforms by design, instead of shifting the burden to parents and children.”
Proposed social media bans for children are proliferating across many countries following Australia’s adoption of a regulation restricting access for children under 16 in December 2025 – with age-based restrictions coming into force in Indonesia and Malaysia. More than a dozen other countries are considering restricting social media access for children.
The UN Human Rights Office guidelines state that age restrictions on children’s access to specific services or content should be targeted to clearly-identified harms, and recommend a number of additional steps for effective regulation that avoids human rights risks.
Measures suggested include guardrails around age verification processes, mandatory child rights impact assessments, and including children when defining regulatory responses. These steps should be backed up by mandated transparency, strengthened oversight and accountability for companies, and access to remedy for children whose rights are violated.
“Whatever regulations are adopted, it is essential to avoid inadvertently causing further harms. For example, age verification done wrong can both fail at its goal and endanger the privacy of both kids and adults.” Türk said.
The UN Human Rights Chief also noted that experience so far shows that bans can be easily circumvented and expressed concern that such bans may end up pushing children to riskier, even less monitored platforms.
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