EU Digital Services Act: First enforcement decisions target child safety violations

Members of the European Parliament have called for stricter enforcement of the Digital Services Act's child protection provisions, highlighting that very large online platforms and search engines must assess and mitigate risks to minors including exposure to illegal content, grooming, and harmful material. The statement follows the European Commission's formal proceedings against platforms suspected of insufficient risk management and transparency regarding child safety, with MEPs urging coordinated action by national digital services coordinators and the Commission to impose penalties where systemic failures are identified.

Regulatory proceedings establish liability but do not in themselves prevent harm in the seconds and minutes when a predator establishes contact with a child. A Meta Business Partner with detection modules for grooming, sextortion and child sexual abuse material, Guardii operates at the point where exploitation begins, analysing conversation patterns for coercion and escalation across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and other messaging environments. The system reports risk severity to parents, schools and platform safety teams without exposing message content, enabling platforms to demonstrate compliance with DSA risk-mitigation obligations through targeted intervention rather than retrospective reporting after abuse has occurred.