The Popular Party has registered in Congress more than fifty amendments to the bill on the protection of minors in the government’s digital environment, including banning access to social networks for minors under 16 years of age unless parents give express consent.
Deputy Minister Cuca Gamarra explained in a statement sent by the formation that with this package of changes they aim to “improve the protection of minors and help families”, always in a “constructive” way, in order to “improve the government’s proposal” and “ensure the safety of children and young people”.
As one of the main measures, the PP has proposed banning minors under 16 from accessing social networks, with the exception of those between 14 and 16 years old who have “express and verifiable” consent from parents, guardians or legal representatives.
In addition, in this last case, they have asked for the establishment of a “digital rest period” for these minors, which should last from 10 p.m. to 10 p.m. to 8:00 a.m
To make all this possible, the People’s Party has proposed obligations for digital platforms to have a visible content labeling system, control access to their services by minors, prevent and early detect content that may harm or endanger the health or integrity of minors, as well as implement mechanisms to anonymously and confidentially report situations of cyberbullying or digital harassment, among other things.
It will also be mandatory for internet-connected devices to have parental controls pre-installed in the operating systems and for parents to receive basic training on how to configure them at the device sales points.
With its proposals, the PP has argued that it aims to provide families with more tools to protect minors, such as the possibility of access to devices in a proportionate and respectful manner, or access to geolocation, which is prohibited on digital platforms, except with the express and revocable consent of those legally responsible.
Criminal legal measures against suicide, addiction and bullying
The PP has also proposed updating the legislation so that the Criminal Code can be applied in the new circumstances that arise in relation to social networks.
Thus, the PP amendments provide for prison sentences for anyone who creates, embeds, sends, distributes or disseminates content that incites suicide or proposes viral challenges or food practices that endanger the health of minors or people with disabilities.
On the other hand, given the “numerous cases” of bullying, the PP has called for a reform of the law on the criminal liability of minors in order to protect minors who are victims of bullying by underage perpetrators. These changes would include the ban on perpetrators communicating with or accessing victims via digital media.
In this sense, the training also considered the protection of minors from algorithms that can manipulate them by using their personal data or behavior to change their will through pressure or abusive, persuasive design strategies, as well as measures against practices such as “infinite scrolling” or others that generate addiction and dependence.
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
The People’s Party, in turn, has deleted the word “non-consensual” from Article 3 of the bill in its amendments because the party believes that there can be no “consensual” child pornography, which makes any distribution of child sexual content, as well as its apology, illegal.
In this sense, the PP has also recorded as child pornography all sexual content that uses objects that visually represent a minor, as well as that content generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
For the latter, the training called for the establishment of supervision and coordination with the platforms to prevent, detect and eliminate any type of content, whether real or realistic, digitally generated or manipulated, that affects minors, using technologies such as automatic detection and immediate blocking of this material.
Additionally, they have called for the implementation of “agile and effective” protocols for reporting, removing and blocking any sexual or intimate content involving minors.
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