Dubai: United Arab Emirates (UAE) issued a decision regulating children's access to social media platforms. This resolution, passed in its cabinet, aims to enable children to benefit from it within a safe, balanced and age-appropriate digital environment.
The decision comes in light of the increasing use of social media platforms by children and the associated digital challenges and risks, including exposure to inappropriate content, unsafe interaction, collection of personal data, and patterns of excessive use.
The decision includes social media platforms that allow users to create accounts or personal profiles, enable them to interact socially, publish and share content, or rely on algorithmic systems to display, rank, or recommend content, whether free or paid, and applies to all social media platforms, whether their services are available within the country or directed to users within it.
The decision set the minimum age for using social media platforms at 15 years, as children under this age are prohibited from creating, using, or operating personal accounts on social media platforms. They are also prohibited from accessing the full features of the platforms, including social interaction, posting, commenting, sharing, joining public groups, open channels, or any large-scale interactive spaces. The decision obliges the platforms to take all the necessary technical and organizational measures to achieve this, and takes into account the gradual transition towards more balanced and healthy digital habits, in line with the different age stages of children and adolescents.
The decision allowed children aged between 15 and 16 years to use social media platforms, provided that their accounts are subject to special protection measures that include classifying and restricting content according to age group, disabling high-risk features such as interaction with unknown users, regulating times and durations of use, and providing parental control tools.
The decision also stipulated that parental consent would not be considered an exception to the ban or restrictions stipulated therein, and allowed the person in charge of the child’s care to adjust the settings on the accounts of children who have completed the age of 15 and have not completed the age of 16 through the parental control tools provided by social media platforms in a manner that does not conflict with the ban and restrictions stipulated.
The decision requires social media platforms to implement effective and reliable mechanisms for verifying the user's age, such as digital identity or artificial intelligence-supported technologies, including biometric means or any other mechanisms approved by the Child Digital Safety Council.
In this regard, the decision stipulated that self-declaration of age should not be considered as a means of verification. It also stressed the importance of the mechanisms used achieving a high level of accuracy in determining the user's age, while adhering to the highest standards of privacy and personal data protection for the child by minimizing data collection, ensuring its processing, and guaranteeing that it is not retained except for the necessary period.
The decision obliges social media platforms operating in the country or directed to an audience within the country to monitor the personal accounts of children under the age of 15 years established in violation of the provisions of the decision and to take immediate suspension or disabling measures for them.
The decision granted social media platforms a transitional period not exceeding 12 months to adjust their status in accordance with its provisions.
