Labor Party (PT) Senator Alberto Anaya Gutiérrez introduced an initiative to reform the General Law on the Rights of Girls, Boys and Adolescents, in order to prevent minors under 13 from creating, contracting, registering, maintaining or using social media accounts. The proposal seeks to add Article 101 Bis 4 in order to establish the obligation of social media companies to implement age verification mechanisms for users and to guarantee that their information is not used for other purposes.
The PT legislator emphasized that virtual spaces can interfere in the lives of adolescents at an age of emotional transformations, in which posts, reactions, comments and messages affect their daily social experience. Another problem, he stressed, is cyberbullying and constant exposure to content inappropriate for girls and boys, because on the internet they may encounter violent, sexual or discriminatory material, or material that promotes harmful behaviors.
"When a minor suffers harassment in digital spaces or an inappropriate personal photograph of them is spread, it is insufficient to remove that post or close the account, because the information may have been shared and the harm continues outside the platform," he added.
Therefore, protection must begin before having access to spaces that expose children to dangers they are not yet able to face, Senator Anaya Gutiérrez maintained in his initiative, which was referred to the Committees on the Rights of Children and Adolescents, and on First Legislative Studies.
He clarified that the intention of this reform proposal is not to exclude access to the internet, nor to deny the educational and social benefits of technologies, but rather to establish protection during a stage of life in which the abilities to identify risks, protect personal data and evaluate consequences are still developing.
The PT lawmaker specified that setting 13 years as the minimum age to access social networks is not intended to single out or punish girls and boys who use these digital platforms, but rather to place the primary responsibility on the companies that provide the service.
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