Governments worldwide are increasingly adopting measures aimed at protecting children online, such as social media bans and AI safeguards, but experts warn these actions often fall short by excluding children’s voices and focusing on harm mitigation rather than rights fulfillment. This growing tension is highlighted by recent political moves in France, Kenya, and other countries amid calls from the United Nations for more child-sensitive AI governance.
What Happened
In 2024, France introduced a social media ban targeting teenagers, announced by President Emmanuel Macron as a European-leading protection for youth online. However, France’s highest court subsequently blocked the law on grounds of privacy and freedom of expression violations. Meanwhile, Kenya is considering a new AI bill lacking specific protections or consultation mechanisms for children. At the United Nations AI Dialogue held in July, a new state coalition for the protection of children was launched without direct participation from children themselves, despite the UN Secretary-General António Guterres calling for a Child Safety Pledge specific to artificial intelligence.
Key Facts
The French social media ban aimed to restrict under-16s’ access to specific platforms but was struck down by the French Constitutional Court due to constitutional conflicts around privacy and speech rights. The Kenyan AI bill under debate provides no child-specific safeguards or formal channels for youth consultation. Globally, digital identity verification systems to enforce such bans raise privacy and surveillance concerns. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) obliges member states to ensure children’s rights to be heard in matters affecting them, but practical policy engagement remains minimal and often superficial. Amnesty International’s research highlights how governments from Turkey to the UAE are leveraging child protection narratives to advance laws that heighten surveillance and restrict freedom of expression online for all users, not just children.
What This Means
The current approach—centered on social media exclusion and restrictive laws—often amounts to performative politics, designed more to reassure adult voters than to address systemic issues like manipulative platform designs and privacy violations. By ignoring meaningful child participation, policymakers risk crafting solutions that undermine children’s autonomy, limit their access to vital online communities, and exacerbate surveillance risks without effectively reducing harms. For example, evidence from Australia shows that banning teens from platforms neither prevents access nor protects them from online risks, while digital identity tools introduced for age verification can further entrench invasive surveillance by states and corporations.
Moreover, the sidelining of young digital activists threatens broader democratic participation. As recent protests in India, Kenya, and elsewhere demonstrate, governments have increasingly weaponized online data and surveillance tools against youth-led movements, revealing a troubling paradox: children are both portrayed as vulnerable online subjects needing protection and as political actors facing digital repression. The article’s authors argue that a rights-based approach, informed by children’s own perspectives, is urgently needed to shape policies that preserve both safety and civil liberties in the digital ecosystem.
Background
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by nearly all UN member states, guarantees children’s rights to privacy, freedom of expression, and participation in decisions affecting them. Despite this, digital policymaking often reduces children to passive recipients of protection rather than active agents. The recent surge of social media bans and AI safety pledges reflects growing political urgency but has sparked legal challenges, such as the French court ruling. Meanwhile, global digital rights advocates criticize the growing reliance on data-intensive enforcement mechanisms, which risk contravening existing privacy laws such as the EU’s GDPR. Multi-stakeholder youth movements and NGOs have persistently campaigned for measures that address the root causes of digital harms, including algorithmic manipulation and abusive data practices.
The Bigger Picture
This debate occurs amid a broader global trend of tightening online regulations framed under child protection but often accompanied by expansive state surveillance and censorship of dissent. Governments are increasingly pushing for “stricter age assurance” technologies and AI-powered monitoring tools in education and social media, without clear accountability frameworks or assessments of their impact on children’s digital rights. The shift also reflects tensions between safeguarding children and upholding foundational democratic rights in the digital sphere. The advocacy for “no meaningful participation without children” challenges both policymakers and tech companies to rethink their engagement practices and product designs in favor of youth empowerment and rights preservation.
What Comes Next
The Kenyan AI bill remains under parliamentary debate, with no confirmed timeline for passage or amendments addressing child rights. The UN AI Dialogue coalition is expected to develop collaborative frameworks for child digital protection, though details on integrating child voices are not yet published. Meanwhile, similar legislative initiatives in several countries, including Turkey and the UAE, continue to raise concerns among digital rights observers who call for greater scrutiny of privacy and free expression impacts. Ongoing court challenges to national laws like France’s teen social media ban highlight legal uncertainties around balancing child protection with constitutional rights.
Sources
This article is based on reporting and publicly available information from the following sources:
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