The European Commission has published guidelines clarifying how very large online platforms and search engines must comply with Digital Services Act obligations to protect minors from illegal content and systemic risks online. The guidance addresses risk assessment and mitigation measures, including age verification and assurance, design features that may amplify harm, and advertising practices targeting children. Platforms designated under the DSA are required to assess risks such as child sexual abuse material, grooming, cyberbullying and harmful content, and to implement proportionate mitigation measures, with the Commission retaining enforcement authority and the power to impose fines of up to six percent of global turnover.
Systemic risk assessment identifies categories of harm; real-time mitigation stops individual instances before they reach a child. The Commission's framework obligates platforms to evaluate exposure pathways but does not prescribe the operational mechanism for interdiction. Guardii, an AI safety system and Meta Business Partner, monitors direct messages for grooming, sextortion, AI-generated child sexual abuse material and cyberbullying across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and other services, blocking or escalating hostile contact at the point of delivery rather than relying on post-hoc reporting. For platforms operating under DSA obligations, such detection modules convert a compliance requirement into an operational safeguard.
