Protect minors on platforms they can reach

How to do it

Article 28(1) of the Digital Services Act asks for a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors. The Commission's guidelines of 14 July 2025 are the benchmark for that duty. A minimum age in your terms does not by itself put you out of scope. Use age verification for adult content, such as gambling or pornography. Use age estimation where your terms set a minimum age because of risks you found. Article 28(2) bans ads based on profiling for users you know are minors. Article 28(3) says you need not collect more personal data just to learn a user's age. Tune recommender systems to cut exposure to harmful content, and give minors control of their feed. Record the decision with your Digital Services Act tier. Give stored age signals a period in the retention schedule.

Examples

JavaScript example

const ADULT_AGE = 18;
const MINOR_DEFAULTS = { profileVisibility: 'private', streaks: false, autoplay: false, pushNotifications: false, profiledAds: false };

export const defaultSettings = (ageBand, adultDefaults) =>
  ageBand.maxAge < ADULT_AGE ? { ...adultDefaults, ...MINOR_DEFAULTS } : adultDefaults;

Python example

ADULT_AGE = 18
MINOR_DEFAULTS = {"profile_visibility": "private", "streaks": False, "autoplay": False,
                  "push_notifications": False, "profiled_ads": False}

def default_settings(age_band: dict, adult_defaults: dict) -> dict:
    if age_band["max_age"] < ADULT_AGE:
        return {**adult_defaults, **MINOR_DEFAULTS}
    return adult_defaults

How to check

An end-to-end test signs up a user marked as under 18. The new profile is private, and streaks, autoplay and push notifications are off. The ad request for that user carries no profiling segments.

Sources

• Commission guidelines on the protection of minors under the Digital Services Act
• Digital Services Act Article 28

Related rules

• Handle appeals and send decisions to the EU database in Compliance
• Decide which Digital Services Act tier you are in in Compliance
• Keep one retention schedule in Compliance