President Sheinbaum to Sign Decree Mandating Safer Digital Platforms for Kids and Teens

President Claudia Sheinbaum will sign a decree on Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, aiming to guarantee safe digital environments for children and teenagers. Under the decree, digital platforms will be required to remove content that incites or promotes violence, hate speech, violent extremism, abuse, sexual exploitation or violence, suicide, deliberate self-harm, eating disorders, school bullying and cyberbullying, illegal behavior, and sexually explicit material.

During President Claudia Sheinbaum’s daily press conference on October 9, the Legal Advisor to the Executive Branch, Luisa María Alcalde Luján, explained that digital platforms are required by design to ensure the safety and protection of children and teenagers.

“First and foremost, they must identify and immediately remove accounts or content that promote or generate any form of violence. Platforms themselves must feature mechanisms to identify and take down such content,” Alcalde Luján emphasized.

Additionally, content must be age-rated to distinguish between children and teenagers. Platforms must also provide easily accessible parental supervision tools, user-reporting mechanisms for violent content, and default privacy and security settings, noted the legal advisor.

The decree also mandates that digital platforms collaborate with law enforcement and judicial authorities. To this end, platforms must maintain an operational contact channel available 24/7 year-round to respond to information requests from investigative authorities. They are also required to preserve and submit all evidence and information to the authorities, as well as immediately alert them whenever life-threatening content is identified.

For his part, the head of the Digital Transformation Agency, José Antonio Peña Merino, pointed out that digital platforms already possess many of these security mechanisms and tools to remove violent or sexually abusive content. Therefore, the purpose of this decree is to refine these policies and streamline reports sent to authorities.

President Claudia Sheinbaum noted that the decree itself establishes a working group tasked with determining whether additional regulation or specific legislative changes will be required. Furthermore, she stressed that the entire decree aligns with the Constitution, which establishes the protection of children and teenagers.

Image: Gobierno de México