Brazil’s Digital Statute of Children and Adolescents took effect this week, introducing new requirements aimed at shielding minors from addictive, violent and pornographic online content, and placing new obligations on platforms and digital service providers.
The law took shape after a public push in August, when influencer Felipe Bressanim, known as Felca, published a 50-minute video denouncing what he described as the sexualization of children and adolescents online. The video drew 52 million views on YouTube and helped accelerate the approval of a bill that had been in the works since 2022, according to the AP report.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the statute in September after it cleared both houses of Congress. Speaking during Wednesday’s signing ceremony, Lula said, “We can no longer think that freedom doesn’t go hand in hand with protection,” adding: “Enough of tolerating exploitation, sexual abuse, child pornography, bullying, incitement to violence and self-harm just because it happens in the digital environment.”
Under the new statute, minors under 16 must link their social media accounts to a legal guardian to ensure supervision. The legislation also prohibits platforms from using addictive features such as infinite scroll and the automatic play of videos, and it requires digital services to implement an effective age verification mechanism that goes beyond simply having users declare they are over 18.
Supporters and experts said the changes address how platform design can keep young users engaged in ways that may be harmful. Maria Mello, head of the digital branch at the Alana Institute, said manipulative design meant to keep people engaged is particularly harmful for children, adding, “It increases anxiety levels, pulls children out of school, causes vision problems.” She also cited risks including sexual exploitation, encouragement of self-harm, cyberbullying, and the exploitation of children’s and adolescents’ personal data for commercial interests.
Brazil joins a broader set of governments wrestling with how to protect children online. In December, Australia implemented what the AP described as a “world-first social media ban” for children younger than 16, and in early March Indonesia announced a similar approach starting this year. But Brazilian officials and legal experts said Brazil’s model is not an outright ban, with Guilherme Klafke, a law professor at Getulio Vargas Foundation, describing it as a framework that “places more responsibility on those who offer digital products and services that may be accessed by children and adolescents.”
For parents, the statute represents a new mechanism for controlling what minors can access online. Lincoln Silva, a 48-year-old businessman picking up two children aged 8 and 11 from school in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday, said the legislation will reduce access to information that people should only have at a certain age, adding, “There’s information we should only have in adulthood.”
Tech companies said they are making adjustments ahead of the new rules. WhatsApp said last week it would introduce parent-managed accounts, allowing legal guardians to decide who can contact a child’s account and which groups the child can participate in. Google said it would use artificial intelligence to estimate whether a user is a minor or an adult to block certain content automatically, and it added that YouTube users under 16 years old would need parental supervision to create or maintain a channel.
The law provides for penalties against companies that disregard its requirements, with the AP report saying violators could face fines of up 50 million reais (approximately $9.5 million). Renata Tomaz, a communications professor at Getulio Vargas Foundation, said the restrictions could create frustrations among young users, and she urged dialogue with children about why the law was implemented, saying, “We need to convey all these points that we consider essential to protect children and adolescents in such a way that allows them to look at this law and say: ‘It’s good that I’m being protected.’”