Child and youth protection: looking for everything but quick fixes

For decades, the debate about children and young people and their use of digital services has not lacked one thing: steep demands from politicians, but also from academia in some cases. Even today, bans on end devices, platforms or at least compulsory identification are often propagated as simple solutions. But where does a harmful level of use begin? What do children and young people need to be protected from? What would even be effective? And what restricts boys and girls in a way that should not be? 16 members of a commission commissioned by the German government are now to find answers along these guidelines.

"The commission will draw up concrete recommendations for action," says Karin Prien, Federal Minister of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, Youth and Family. The CDU politician does not want to release providers from their duty to do more to effectively protect children and young people. However, for one year – until the next parliamentary summer break – there should be no initiative for the federal government. The members are to submit their recommendations by then.

Together with Prien, the co-chairs presented their plans in Berlin today. Co-chair Nadine Schön emphasized: "Digital opportunities are increasing day by day. Children and young people should use digital opportunities and grow up with them as a matter of course". However, for the long-standing CDU member of parliament, this is inextricably linked to greater security. There is no absolute security, but at least the known problems can be contained, said Schön.

Risky behavior – and little concrete data

And these could well be enormous, as Olaf Köller describes. The scientific director of the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education is the other chair of the committee. According to current data, around one million children could exhibit risky behavior in the digital space. Half a million would display rather risky behavior in computer games alone, Köller said, citing data from other researchers – and pointing out that there is a lack of valid data in many areas. However, as digitalization will not disappear, it is important to find not only regulatory answers across disciplines, but also answers for society as a whole.

The 16 members of the commission that has now been set up include very different perspectives – ranging from doctors, psychologists and criminologists to lawyers and education and media researchers. At the end of the work, which is to begin with a comprehensive stocktaking, there would be no to-do list for the federal legislator. Rather, recommendations for action that are as concrete as possible for all levels and groups, from the European Union to parents and educators.

The commission does not include: Children and young people or representatives of these groups, who are supposed to be the main focus. So are we once again only talking about children and young people and not with them? This is expressly not the case, but instead of individual representatives, children and young people should be consulted very broadly, according to Federal Youth Minister Prien. She promises that the commission will receive all the necessary resources for its work.

No access until the minimum age?

Family Minister Karin Prien tells the commission that the topic has been discussed far too often only in excerpts. Furthermore, she would rather not anticipate results under any circumstances, even if she herself naturally has preferences, for example when it comes to effective age verification or bans. "That could also mean saying: no contact at all up to a certain age," said Prien in Berlin this morning. Without the parents, however, it would not work.

It is by no means certain that the commission will be a success. However, even critical observers are likely to concede that the basic idea of conducting a thorough review would do the debate good. Co-chair Nadine Schön emphasizes that the aim is to differentiate rather than to make flat recommendations. For Commission Co-Chair Köller, the aim is to break through the logic of the debates of recent years. Among other things, the aim is to look at how other countries have dealt with the challenges – and what can be transferred to Germany. But what Köller wants to avoid at all costs: "correctness without consequences" – is that the analysis is correct, but nothing happens as a result.

The commission presented today must now begin its work and show whether it will succeed in developing the big strategic answer to previously unsolved problems that is flexible enough for technological developments, individual media usage behavior and regulatory requirements.

(afl)