Minister summons tech giants to meeting: Take greater responsibility for children and youth

To find effective solutions for age verification against harmful online content, Minister of Business Morten Bødskov invites Facebook, Google, Snapchat, and TikTok to a meeting.

This is because children and young people risk encountering video clips and images depicting blatant violence, suicide, and sexual abuse when they are online.

There is significant work underway at the EU level for common solutions across borders. However, there is currently very limited progress.

Therefore, Minister of Business Morten Bødskov has invited a number of tech giants and stakeholders to discuss age verification on online platforms to find effective solutions to the problem of age verification.

“Fundamentally, it must be safe for our children and young people to be online. But when they can encounter horrific content ranging from violence to sexual abuse, something is wrong. We need to solve the problem quickly, and it requires a united front from the EU. However, it is a fact that tech giants have created the problem of children and young people being exposed to harmful content online, and they need to take that responsibility seriously. Therefore, they must come to the table with real solutions. I hope they will accept the invitation, and we can collaborate to find effective tools to protect our children and young people in their digital lives,” says Minister of Business Morten Bødskov.

To ensure progress in the Commission’s work, Minister of Business Morten Bødskov has also sent a letter to Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, urging him to impose requirements on tech giants to ensure effective age verification on their platforms.