Brazil’s recently enacted ECA Digital law (Law No. 15.211/2025) sets a new precedent in child online safety by requiring digital platforms to embed protective features in their design rather than restricting children’s access to social media altogether. This regulatory approach aims to address the risks inherent in platform mechanics that encourage prolonged and excessive use.
What Happened
On January 1, 2025, Brazil’s new child online safety legislation, officially titled the ECA Digital law (Law No. 15.211/2025), came into effect. The law is enforced by Brazil’s National Data Protection Agency (ANPD) and includes a specific decree that elaborates on its requirements. Unlike similar measures in countries like Australia and the United Kingdom, which impose age limits for social media account creation, Brazil’s law centers on “safe by design” principles. Article 17 sets the highest level of child protection as the default configuration on platforms and prohibits design elements that encourage compulsive use, such as autoplay, infinite scrolling, excessive notifications, and reward mechanisms linked to time spent.
Key Facts
The ECA Digital was enacted at the federal level in Brazil and complements protections established under the country’s broader Child and Adolescent Statute. Specifically, Law No. 15.211/2025 targets the design of social media and similar platforms to reduce foreseeable harms to children online. It mandates that the default user experience maximizes safety and that platforms limit features proven to prolong use excessively or problematically. This approach contrasts with regulations that set minimum age requirements for social media registration, emphasizing design responsibility rather than outright access control. The ANPD is responsible for overseeing compliance with these provisions, but specific enforcement mechanisms and penalties were not detailed in the source material.
What This Means
Brazil’s ECA Digital law represents an important shift in child online safety regulation by placing the onus on platform providers to anticipate and mitigate risks through product design rather than relying on parental controls or age bans. By requiring the highest protection settings as default and restricting addictive platform features, the law acknowledges behavioral science insights showing that most users accept default settings, which can either protect or harm them depending on design choices.
This approach aligns with emerging international consensus around the “safe by design” concept, which aims to reduce harmful digital engagement patterns by changing the product itself rather than restricting access. In practice, this could make social media safer for children while preserving moderate beneficial use, as studies show moderate social media engagement can correlate with positive educational outcomes. At the same time, curbing compulsive or excessive use could help mitigate negative mental health effects associated with social media overuse.
Brazil’s stance also complements, rather than replaces, regulatory strategies in other countries that impose age limits, suggesting that a combination of access controls and design-based safeguards may offer the most robust protection. This law underscores a recognition that simply barring children from platforms may not address the root causes of harm, which largely stem from how platforms are architected to maximize user attention and engagement.
Background
Previous international efforts to enhance child digital safety have included age restrictions, such as Australia’s mandate that users be at least 16 to register on social media, and Britain’s plans for similar age limits. However, critics argue that access bans do not sufficiently address the design elements that can lead to problematic use. The OECD’s report, Growing Up in the Social Media Age (2023), highlighted that moderate social media use can coexist with positive educational outcomes, but heavy use associates with poorer performance and wellbeing. Brazil’s law builds on this evidence by targeting platform design to balance safety with opportunity online.
The Bigger Picture
The enactment of Brazil’s ECA Digital law fits into a global trend emphasizing corporate accountability in digital spaces, particularly regarding vulnerable populations like children. It resonates with policy debates on the “attention economy” and the role of design ethics in shaping user behavior. Brazil joins a growing group of jurisdictions recognizing that product design is a powerful lever for public interest protections in technology.
What Remains Unclear
Details on enforcement mechanisms, sanctions for non-compliance, and how the ANPD will monitor platform adherence have yet to be fully disclosed or clarified in the public domain. It also remains to be seen how platforms will technically implement the mandated changes and whether they will challenge aspects of the law legally. Additionally, the interplay between Brazil’s regulations and international platforms operating across multiple jurisdictions introduces regulatory complexity not fully addressed yet.
Sources
This article is based on reporting and publicly available information from the following sources:
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