EU Commissioners Glenn Micallef (Youth and Culture) and Henna Virkkunen (Technology, Security and Democracy), presented their plan for new legislation over cyberbullying, yesterday during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Commissioner Virkkunen said that with its Digital Services Act, the EU inscribed high standards over the protection of minors on the internet with the Digital Services Act, and it is now enforcing these standards. She highlighted the recent EU action taken against X.com as an example of ongoing enforcement by the EU. The Technology Commissioner added that cyberbullying is negatively affecting children and legislation is planned to to address the issue.
The Commissioner for Youth and Culture was more vague on whether the law will apply to children or adults when he said that harmful content should be pulled down from the internet. Commissioner Micallef said that apart from new measures, existing laws will be further enforced. He also said that minors will have the facility to report cyberbullying and action will be taken immediately.
European states are increasingly discussing legislation to protect minors online including by introducing outright social-media platform bans. France has banned social media platforms for children under 15 years old, while Spain plans to do the same. Malta is also discussing these proposals.
Although Commissioner Virkkunen said that the law is aimed to protect children, concerns on free speech remain. Politicians are usually the first to complain about “cyberbullying” by the press.
The Commissioners’ speeches with the press conferences videos can be found here.
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