INDUSTRIES, MEDIA | Draft Law on Protection of Minors Online still under discussion at Italian Parliament

Discussions are underway in the Italian Senate on Bill No. 1136 (Draft Law), which aims to introduce new rules for the protection of minors in the digital environment, particularly regarding access to and use of video-sharing platforms and social networks, and which introduces, inter alia, important updates concerning minors’ access to online platforms.

Most notably, the Draft Law provides that an online account may be validly created only if the user is at least 15 years old, and that parental authorisation is always required for minors up to the age of 16. There is an ongoing debate as to whether the threshold for the valid creation of an account should apply to all information society services or only to certain categories, such as social networks and video-sharing platforms, as the Draft Law specifically addresses these two categories of services.

In addition, the Draft Law raises from 14 to 16 the age for expressing valid consent to the processing of personal data set under the Italian Privacy Code. On 7 October 2025, the Italian Data Protection Authority (Italian DPA) was heard before the Senate and invited lawmakers to reflect on the proposed increase of the age threshold for giving consent online. The Italian DPA suggested that the chosen threshold should be more closely aligned with the age at which minors typically start accessing social media and stressed the importance of introducing effective age-verification mechanisms to ensure that minors are adequately protected in the digital environment. Regarding parental consent, the Italian DPA warned that, as currently drafted, the provision would in practice invalidate any consent to the processing of personal data of minors under 15 years of age, effectively excluding them from the use of online services.

Newsletter n. 112 – November 2025