EU Commission issues guidance on Digital Services Act child safety provisions

The European Commission has published detailed guidance clarifying obligations for very large online platforms and search engines under Article 28 of the Digital Services Act, which requires specific measures to protect minors from content and contact risks including sexual exploitation, grooming and cyberbullying. The guidance specifies that platforms must conduct child-safety risk assessments, implement age-appropriate design, restrict targeted advertising to minors, and provide accessible reporting mechanisms, with oversight by the Commission and national digital services coordinators.

Article 28 mandates risk mitigation but delegates the operational burden of detecting harm to the platforms themselves, many of which lack visibility into the escalation dynamics of abusive conversations. A targeted detection system surfaces the threat patterns that regulation anticipates: sustained contact from age-inappropriate users, coercive language, solicitation of images, and the序列 of messages that precede exploitation. Guardii's anti-grooming, anti-sextortion and CSAM-detection modules operate in real time across messaging environments, identifying conversations that cross harm thresholds and enabling intervention before abuse materializes, translating regulatory intent into executable child protection at the point where risk is highest.