The Government is promoting a law for the protection of minors in the digital sphere that, among a wide range of measures, will raise the minimum age in Spain from 14 to 16 to be able to register on a social network or … subscribe to any type of platform. Minors under 16 may only do so with the explicit authorization of those who exercise their parental authority (normally parents) or their legal guardians.
This would be the effect of the provision contained in the draft law that the Council of Ministers approved today, which indicates that the minimum age to give free consent to the processing of personal data by the different internet content operators, and without which is legally impossible to register on one of these platforms, will rise to 16 years of age. Of course, this age limitation will only make sense, and will not become a dead letter, if the public authorities are capable of making network operators comply with another of the obligations set out in the future standard, having a system of age verification for really effective access, nothing like the trick that most people have today.
The regulation contains a range of measures and legal changes that seek to establish systems of protection for minors against the current easy access to adult content such as pornography, violence or gambling; implements mechanisms for early detection of damage caused by the problematic use of mobile phones, tablets or computers; imposes obligations on manufacturers and suppliers and actions against those who ignore them; seeks to train minors so that they are empowered and vaccinated from childhood against these risks; and makes modifications to the Penal Code and procedural laws to more harshly pursue digital criminals, especially pedophiles and stalkers.
This law still has many months left to become a reality. After its first passage through the Council of Ministers, the preliminary draft will have to be informed by the Government’s advisory bodies before reaching Parliament for processing and approval. The ministries of Youth, Digital Transition and the Presidency and Justice have participated in the preparation of this first draft.
These are some of the changes and provisions included in the draft:
Right to a safe digital environment
In its article 2, it includes the safe use and enjoyment of the digital environment as a right of all Spanish minors. «Minors have the right to be effectively protected from digital content that may harm their development… they have the right to receive sufficient and necessary information in a form and language appropriate to their age about the use of technologies, as well as their rights and the risks associated with the digital environment…they have the right to access to information, freedom of expression and to be heard…they have the right to equitable and effective access to devices, connection and training in the use of tools digital.
The pediatrician, attentive to addictions
The program that pediatricians and nurses in health centers use to prevent and detect ailments and harmful behaviors or habits in childhood and adolescence will incorporate into its usual tests questions that allow early identification of signs of problematic use (or even addiction). ) to screens or the internet, to provide you with specialized help. Its implementation and the design of protocols will be carried out in coordination with the autonomies, which are the health care providers. Specialized centers have detected an increase in technological addictions in adolescents, especially among them. Boys’ games tend to be video games and girls’ games tend to be social networks.
Digital removal penalty
The draft bill introduces distancing from digital environments into the catalog of penalties of the Penal Code. It would be the virtual equivalent of the physical penalties of prohibition of communication by any means with the victims or removal from their home, work or location of residence. The penalty, which in principle is not provided as a precautionary measure, consists of the prohibition of access or communication through social networks, forums, communication platforms or any other place in the virtual space, when the crime is committed within them. . It is applicable to a wide range of crimes involving digital use, including family abuse, cyberbullying, gender violence, or sexual harassment or assault.
Jail for “ultra-counterfeiters”
A new crime is created to punish with prison the increasingly common cases of manipulation of images or voices of third parties using artificial intelligence, spread over the Internet without their permission, with high sexual or humiliating content and that cause serious damage. «A prison sentence of one to two years will be imposed on those who, without authorization from the affected person and with the aim of undermining their moral integrity, disseminate, display or transfer their body image or voice audio generated, modified or recreated through automated systems. , software, algorithms, artificial intelligence or any other technology, so that it appears real, simulating situations of sexual or seriously humiliating content. If the diffusion is massive, the sentence will be two years.
False virtual identity, aggravating
The use of fictitious identities on the Internet, including the attribution of false ages or sex, to facilitate the commission of crimes will be considered by the Penal Code as an aggravating circumstance and will cause the corresponding penalty to be placed in the upper half of the range. It is designed above all for sexual crimes against minors (harassment, grooming, aggression, exhibitionism, corruption), in which pedophiles increasingly pretend to be boys or girls their age to catch their victims.
Urgent removal of contents
The rule extends the current system of legal procedures and rapid action for the removal of pirated content from web pages or any other digital site, or even its closure, to those that may violate the rights of children. It grants public authorities the same possibilities of action used in the event of violations of intellectual property rights for situations in which the best interests of the minor must be defended.
Free parental controls
All mobile phones, tablets, computers or televisions sold in Spain will be required to include an effective and free parental control system so that parents or guardians can take measures to protect minors from the risks of handling these devices and from internet browsing, chats and social networks. Manufacturers and suppliers will have to offer system activation by default in the initial device configuration process, such as with languages and any other main features of use. In this way, all parents, regardless of their financial means or abilities, will be the ones who decide whether or not to activate this shielding and what limitations on the use of the device and the Internet they impose on their children. Its configuration should be easy to use and accessible to the majority.
Risk notices and age verification
The draft law provides that the parental control device forms a protective triangle with the duty of providers to use an effective age verification system to provide access to adult content (pornography, gambling or violent content, among others) and with its also new obligation to label, with clear information and simple language, all content inappropriate for minors as well as advertise the risks for these young people of its products and functions. These mandatory alerts will facilitate the vetoes of websites, apps, forums, networks or functionalities that parents can carry out through parental control.
Digital literacy
The norm orders the implementation of a national strategy for the digital protection of children, with short, medium and long-term measures, which will mostly come from the proposal that the group of 50 experts will announce this month. One of the basic measures will be a digital literacy program, which, in coordination with the autonomies, will be taught from Primary to High School, to give minors tools for protection and detection of ‘fake news’. It will not be a specific subject but transversal teachings that will permeate all education, for which teachers and counselors must also receive specific training.
