The European Parliament has adopted a report prepared by the Committee on Culture and Education on the impact of social media and the online environment on young people, backing key demands made by Renew Europe for safer online platforms.
Public debate has focused heavily on screen time, age limits and parental controls, but often overlooks how strongly platforms shape young people’s behaviour. The report targets the design choices behind many of the risks young people face online.
Renew Europe strongly backed protections built directly into platforms, including measures to disable targeted advertising and constrain addictive design features. The report also calls for safer settings for recommender systems. It urges platforms to switch off autoplay and limit infinite scrolling and notifications.
Renew Europe’s shadow rapporteur Hristo Petrov MEP (We Continue the Change, BG) played a key role in shaping the final compromise, securing an approach that combines stronger protection with young people’s rights to communicate and participate online.
“Children should not be expected to compete with algorithms designed to keep them scrolling. Right now, the responsibility to protect them falls on parents, who have to find the right settings or install an app to make sure they know what their children watch. This report puts responsibility back on the platforms, because they are the ones designing, deploying, and profiting from the apps and algorithms. Protection has to be built in and switched on by default,” Petrov explained.
Renew Europe also secured recommendations on video games and AI. The report shows the risks of so-called “loot boxes” and calls for gambling content in live streams to be clearly labelled. On AI, it calls for youth impact reviews before products are made available.
Education and media literacy are also central to the report. Young people should be equipped to engage critically with what they encounter online and know when to switch off. The report also calls for better training and support for parents and teachers.
The European Parliament also calls for greater platform accountability. It asks the European Commission to consider personal liability in cases of serious and persistent breaches of the Digital Services Act provisions protecting minors.
Renew Europe also defended young people’s access to factual, science-based and age-appropriate information, including on sexual and reproductive health. It also pushed for protections for children in vulnerable situations, including better content moderation, representation, awareness and access to mental health support.
“The online world is where a great many young people learn, create, organise and find each other. It is our job is to make it safe for them. It takes bold measures to prevent screen dependency, so that children still have time to sleep, play sport and see their friends offline, combining the best of both worlds,” Petrov concluded.