Persons under 18 and the Internet: Arcom presents its priorities for regulating digital platforms, to make the internet a safer place for children and teenagers
Martin Ajdari, Chairman of Arcom (French regulatory authority for audiovisual and digital communication), presented the Authority's priorities for the protection of persons under 18 online at a press conference on Thursday, September 25, 2025, alongside Laurence Pecaut-Rivolier and Benoît Loutrel, members of the Authority's college, respectively in charge of the " Protection des publics " and " Plateformes en ligne " working groups. The aim is to ensure that the major platforms comply with the rules in force in France and Europe.
At the press conference, held at the INHA (Institut national d'histoire de l'art), Arcom's chairman and two members of the board presented the results of a ground-breaking study entitled " Minors online: what risks? what protection? ".
Conducted by the regulator, the study involved 2,000 children and teenagers aged 11 to 17, as well as 2,000 parents, over a period of almost a year, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches with semiological analysis.
Four key findings emerged:
- More than four out of five youngsters aged 11 to 17 use at least one major online platform every day.
- 44% of youngsters access social networks before the age of 13.
As they themselves reveal, they don't hesitate to lie about their age to log on, when and if asked by the platforms.
- Exposure of minors to risks on the Internet is real, and significant: 83% of youngsters aged 11 to 17 are regularly exposed to at least one of the six risks identified in this study.
- NB: while hyperconnection is the most frequent risk, exposure to content considered "shocking" for the mental health of a person under 18 appears to be the second risk factor online, with 77% of 11-17 year-olds concerned (the other four risks identified: dangerous challenges, cyberbullying, exchanges with ill-intentioned adults, scams).
- The consequences for youngsters' well-being of this frequent exposure to risk can be severe and long-lasting. Some remain traumatized long after the event, despite the help they receive from the adults around them.
In order to protect persons under 18, especially the youngest, from the risks to which this study confirms they are massively and regularly exposed, Arcom has presented two major priorities for 2025 and 2026:
Priority 1: effective compliance with the minimum age for accessing platforms (as a reminder: 13 years old).
As revealed in this study, a large number of youngsters bypass the minimum age threshold imposed by the platforms' terms of service. Mindful of the public health challenges involved, the AMF will require platforms, particularly social networking sites, to enforce this minimum age and to fight more effectively against circumvention strategies, in particular by improving detection of offenders and preventing them from recreating an account.
Priority 2: the deployment, by the major digital players, of a supply adapted to youngsters, different from the services offered to adult users.
As underlined in the study: faced with the risks they are aware of facing on the Internet, particularly in terms of mental health (hyperconnection) or security (interactions with malicious adults, dangerous challenges...), youngsters are demanding protection. But 45% of them still consider that the tools and means made available to them by the platforms are inadequate. The regulation will therefore verify the need to adapt features deemed to encourage addictive behavior, such as infinite scrolling, or exposing children and teenagers to malicious interactions. It will also monitor the default settings for the accounts of person-under-18 users, to ensure, for example, that they are not exposed to age-inappropriate content.
In view of the considerable challenges that the Internet represents in terms of public health for children and teenagers, Arcom will mobilize all the means at its disposal to ensure that the major platforms comply, in practice, with the rules for the protection of minors in force in France and Europe.
Among these means, the following in particular will be implemented: a cycle of consultation with the digital platforms most popular with young people; " testing " campaigns based on trusted flaggers; setting up a panel of youngsters to ensure the relevance of the measures implemented.
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