Social media networks will soon be obliged to adhere to same safety obligations as pornography sites to prevent young users below 15 years old creating accounts.
MPs are wanting to strengthen online safety and introduce more intense monitoring of the world-wide web by ensuring sites implement verification to block children from harmful content. Social media networks are being warned to be prepared to upgrade their safety provisions and collaborate with technology vendors.
Laurent Marcangeli, a member of Parliament from Emmanuel Macron’s opponent party Horizons, addressed the new bill to an assembly which was adopted on Wednesday.
The bill will unify all platforms that children have easier access to in the internet age under the same requirements for online safety.
Social media users professing to be 15 years or older will have to download a mobile government-approved digital certification to prove their eligibility to access these sites.
“In 2021, 63 percent of children under 13 had an account on at least one social network … This is a violation of the general terms of use of the main platforms concerned, according to which registration is allowed from the age of 13”.
The concept of “double anonymity” is where a telecom provider or digital identity provider would verify a user’s age and release a token which pornography sites or social media accept without having to know the individual’s identity.
