{"id":164385,"date":"2026-05-30T03:12:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/30\/banning-children-from-social-media-is-not-enough-un-warns-platforms-have-to-be-made-safe-by-design\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T03:15:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T03:15:27","slug":"banning-children-from-social-media-is-not-enough-un-warns-platforms-have-to-be-made-safe-by-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/05\/30\/banning-children-from-social-media-is-not-enough-un-warns-platforms-have-to-be-made-safe-by-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Banning children from social media is not enough, UN warns – platforms have to be made safe by design"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said the harms children face in the digital world \u2013 from addictive design features to privacy violations \u2013 were not inevitable, but Result of deliberate business choices<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

‘Addictive features’<\/h2>\n

“Harms to children’s safety, privacy and well-being online result from design choices and business practices that undermine protections Addictive design features like infinite scroll, autoplay and persistent notifications,<\/strong>” He said.<\/p>\n

Guidelines, Title It is right to protect children online<\/em>With the rise of age-based social media restrictions around the world.<\/p>\n

Australia banned children under 16 from the platforms in December 2025, Indonesia and Malaysia followed suit, and more than a dozen other countries are taking similar steps.<\/p>\n

Mr Turk warned that such restrictions could be easily circumvented and risk pushing children into riskier, less supervised settings. “Restricting access to platforms that remain unsafe cannot be the end goal,” he said.<\/p>\n

Peggy Hicks, OHCHR<\/a> Director of Thematic Engagement and special procedures<\/a>Said that technology companies now have a clear choice.<\/p>\n

“Change the way they design and operate their platforms to better protect children’s rights and safety \u2013 or be forced to do so through increasingly restrictive legislation and regulatory fines,” he told reporters in Geneva.<\/p>\n

The guidelines call for building security into the platform architecture from the start, rather than letting parents and children manage the risks themselves.<\/p>\n

They also recommend mandatory child rights impact assessments, strictly regulated age verification to guard against privacy risks, and meaningful consultation with children themselves when designing regulatory responses.<\/p>\n

Ms Hicks stressed that the rapidly evolving digital landscape \u2013 including the rise of AI and chatbots \u2013 made agile, evidence-based policy making essential. \u201cWe need to gather evidence and quickly adopt what we learn,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Full guidelines are available from OHCHR Here<\/a>. There may be a video statement from High Commissioner Turk seen here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said the harms children face in the digital world \u2013 from addictive design features to privacy violations \u2013 were not inevitable, but Result of deliberate business choices. ‘Addictive features’ “Harms to children’s safety, privacy and well-being online result from design choices and business practices that undermine protections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":164388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[8889,904,5639,3179,1635,1825,3178,235],"class_list":["post-164385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-verse","tag-banning","tag-children","tag-design","tag-media","tag-platforms","tag-safe","tag-social","tag-warns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164389,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164385\/revisions\/164389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}