Brazil began putting fresh measures into effect on Tuesday aimed at limiting children’s access to social media and preventing them from encountering illegal or violent material.
The law governing the digital usage of minors was passed last year after a scandal surfaced regarding the alleged sexual exploitation of minors on the platform Instagram, and the legislation is commencing this week.
This move sees the highly connected country, home to 212 million people, join a growing number of nations attempting to shield children from potentially addictive algorithms found on social media. While some countries, such as Australia, have enforced total bans on access, others mandate stricter parental consent or age verification requirements.
Under the new Brazilian regulations, teenagers up to the age of 16 must have their accounts connected to those of a legal parent or guardian. Furthermore, digital providers must implement “reliable” age verification to ensure that minors under 18 cannot access prohibited or unsuitable content, which includes pornographic or violent material.
Iage Miola, director of the National Data Protection Authority (known by the Portuguese initials ANPD) — the governmental organisation responsible for enacting the law — stated that the new legislation prohibits users from simply declaring their age, as this method is viewed as ineffective. The specific technical details of how the verification process will operate have not yet been released.
[See more: Social media use could be behind the epidemic of childhood ADHD]
A transitional period started on Tuesday during which the ANPD will finalise the technical guidelines. Miola confirmed that he had met with representatives from various technology firms to examine their proposals. For the present time, he indicated that the preferred verification method would be users submitting an identity document and performing biometric photo verification.
The legislation also places obligations on digital platforms to remove content appearing to show sexual exploitation or abuse and to inform the Brazilian authorities. Companies that fail to comply with the new rules face sanctions, including fines reaching 50 million reais (approximately US$9 million), account suspensions, or, in instances of repeated non-compliance, a complete ban.
The law also introduces a ban on advertisements directed at children and adolescents, alongside so-called “loot boxes” — in-game items within video games that users pay for to receive a randomised reward.1
Professor Renata Tomaz from the Getulio Vargas Foundation noted that Brazil’s choice was to adopt a law that covers the entire internet, rather than being restricted only to regulating social media usage for children, which is the case in other nations.
