HRW praises Brazil for limiting social media to minors

The non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) praised Brazil for being “the first country in Latin America to approve a specific law to protect children's privacy and safety online.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a law on Wednesday that imposes limits on the use of social media by children and adolescents , which will now be sent to Congress for approval.

“Brazilian children are finally getting the protection they need and deserve to learn, explore and play safely online,” said Hye Jung Han, children's rights and technology researcher at HRW.

"Other governments [in Latin America] should watch, learn, and do the same," the researcher from the human rights organization added in a statement released Wednesday.

The new legislation requires internet platforms to adopt maximum levels of data protection in the case of children and adolescents, which includes “reliable systems” for age verification .

Furthermore, minors under 16 years of age may only be admitted to social networks with the express authorization of their parents, who must have adequate mechanisms to monitor their use.

Other measures included in the law prohibit the sending of pornographic or violent content to the accounts of minors, who will also be prohibited from accessing online gambling, among several other restrictions.

HRW highlighted that platforms are now prohibited from using the personal data of children and adolescents in a way that “causes, facilitates, or contributes to the violation of their privacy.”

In June 2024, the group warned that private photos of Brazilian children were used in “powerful artificial intelligence tools,” later exploited to “create abusive 'deepfakes'” of other children.

Known in English as “deepfake,” this technique for producing fake but authentic-looking multimedia content is the result of computer manipulation of pre-existing digital sounds or images.

Through artificial intelligence techniques, it can be done so well that, with the naked eye, it is often impossible to tell that it is artificial content.

The law also prohibits online services from monitoring the online behavior of minors to target advertising that could influence their interests.

Two HRW investigations have concluded that children in Brazil and around the world were secretly monitored during online classes during the pandemic through invasive profiling and behavioral advertising techniques.

Brazil's National Data Protection Authority should hold consultations with children and adolescents to begin developing protections for the rights mentioned in the law, HRW said.