The UAE government issues a federal decree law regarding child digital safety

The UAE government issued a federal decree law regarding child digital safety, to form an integrated legislative framework aimed at protecting children from digital risks and encouraging the responsible and safe use of technology appropriate to their age groups and developmental needs, within the framework of the UAE’s announcement to designate the year 2026 as the “Year of the Family,” and within its vision to protect and enhance the quality of children’s lives in various environments.

The decree law aims to protect children from harmful digital content and practices that may negatively affect their physical, psychological and moral health, in addition to developing digital awareness among children and those who care for them about digital rights and obligations, in a way that enhances the culture of positive and conscious use of modern technologies.

The decree law establishes a comprehensive framework for the concept of digital safety that includes various types of digital platforms to keep pace with the rapid development in the digital space, including websites, electronic search engines, smart applications, messaging applications, electronic gaming platforms, social media platforms, live broadcast platforms, audio content platforms (podcasts), broadcast services, platforms for displaying on-demand visual content over the Internet, and e-commerce platforms.

The decree law establishes the “Child Digital Safety Council,” headed by the Minister of Family, and under the supervision of the Education, Human Development and Community Council, as an advisory and coordination council concerned with achieving integration and coordination between federal and local authorities and the private sector with regard to child digital safety efforts.

The decree law also specifies the council’s powers, which include proposing policies, legislation and strategies to ensure the highest levels of digital safety for children, and submitting them to the Council of Ministers for approval after the approval of the Education, Human Development and Community Council, in addition to proposing an integrated awareness system, and conducting studies to monitor emerging digital risks in light of rapid technological developments.

The Council’s powers also include proposing general standards for privacy and digital security, and general controls and guidelines for the safe use of digital platforms, in addition to monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of implemented policies and strategies, measuring their impact, and submitting development results and recommendations regarding them.

The decree law prohibits digital platforms from collecting, processing, publishing, or sharing personal data of children under the age of (13) years unless specific controls are met, the most important of which is obtaining explicit and documented parental consent from the child’s caregiver, and not exploiting his data for commercial purposes or to provide targeted electronic advertisements to the child or to track the activity of his personal accounts.

The decree law also regulates the mechanism for reporting harmful content to children to ensure rapid response to cases of digital abuse or exploitation of children, and specifies the responsibility of the relevant authorities to conduct periodic monitoring of content on digital platforms, and to inform security authorities of pornographic materials that exploit children, harmful content, and digital violations to which children may be exposed and which constitute criminal crimes.

The decree law specifies a set of obligations on digital platforms to ensure the protection of children from harmful content in the digital environment, the most important of which is providing effective age verification mechanisms, tools to implement age controls and restrictions on the use of digital platforms, activating blocking and filtering tools and age classification tools for content, controlling targeted electronic advertisements, and providing parental control tools such as setting time limits for children’s daily use of platforms.

Digital platforms’ obligations also include periodic disclosure of policies for dealing with users and content, enhancing awareness of the risks resulting from excessive or uncontrolled use of digital platforms, and providing tools for immediate reporting of pornographic materials, harmful content, or harmful behaviors for children.

Pursuant to the Decree Law, by decision of the Council of Ministers after the approval of the Education, Human Development and Community Council, a system is issued to classify digital platforms according to an assessment of their risks and impact on children. It includes a detail of the obligations and measures to enhance child protection and ways to implement them, and ensures a balance between achieving the maximum levels of enhanced child protection and flexibility in choosing the most appropriate technical means for digital platforms.

This system specifies controls and restrictions related to the use of these platforms by different age groups of children.

The decree law specifies a set of obligations for Internet service providers, the most important of which is activating content filtering systems in networks to enhance compliance with policies for blocking harmful content for children, and taking the necessary measures to ensure safe and controlled use if the beneficiary of Internet services or electronic devices is a child, including requiring the child’s caregiver to sign the terms of service, including those that impose linking the service to parental control tools.

The decree law also specifies obligations on those responsible for child care, the most important of which are monitoring the child’s digital activities, using parental control tools that ensure safe use and non-exposure to harmful content, not creating accounts for children on digital platforms if they are not compatible with their age group, refraining from negative exploitation of children via digital platforms or in the virtual world in a way that threatens their privacy or psychological and social safety or makes them vulnerable to bullying, and educating children about the culture of safe and responsible use of technology.

The decree-law also obligated all those subject to its provisions to regularize their situations within a period not exceeding one year from the date of entry into force of this decree-law.