Consumer Protection Tracker
Consumer Protection Tracker expanded to include a new benchmark of age-based restrictions for smartphones and social media
While public debate around the potential links between youth mental health harms and digital technologies continues to play out, we’ve launched a new benchmark on Age-Based Restrictions within our Consumer Protection Tracker to follow regulatory interventions in the space. The benchmark contains pending and adopted restrictions on the ability of children to access smartphones and/or social media, such as Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age Act and the pending Safer Phones Bill in the UK. The benchmark follows how governments have tightened rules around the collection of minor’s personal data and increased age limits on accessing services since the passage of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in the US in 1998.
The benchmark currently includes age-based restrictions from 10 countries around the world, sortable by the service involved and the age under which children are restricted from accessing those services. Further detail is also provided on how these rules impact the ability to collect and use the personal data of minors, whether parents have power to override restrictions on behalf of their children and how rules can be enforced. According to our research, all 10 of the included countries place some restriction on access to social media, and four of those countries also restrict access to or the permitted functionality of smartphones for minors. With a number of other governments around the world currently considering introducing new restrictions, this benchmark will be updated on an ongoing basis to reflect these developments.
