President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed this Wednesday, 18, a decree that regulates the ECA Digital law.
Sanctioned in September, the legislation was created to protect children and adolescents on the internet. The law came into force on Tuesday, the 17th, but some points required detailing and needed to be regulated by the federal government, which happened this Wednesday. The president of the Chamber, Hugo Motta (Republicans), participated in the decree signing ceremony at Palácio do Planalto.
Among the main points of the decree, as Estadão said, there is the provision that those responsible for child influencers will need judicial authorization to profit from their content.
The decree also prohibits the monetization of “vexatious” content, such as sexual exploitation and abuse, publications that portray children and adolescents in an erotic and sexually suggestive manner, physical violence, pornography, among others.
In addition to the ECA regulation, the president signed two other decrees. One creates the National Center for the Protection of Children and Adolescents, linked to the Federal Police, which will be responsible for centralizing reports regarding crimes against minors in the digital environment. The other structures the National Data Protection Agency (ANPD), which will gain more positions and functions to monitor compliance with the legislation.
“Everyone needs to do their part to guarantee a safe digital space and the primary responsibility lies with digital platforms. With the new law, platforms now have the obligation to report crimes to the Federal Police and to immediately remove criminal content without the need for a court order,” said Lula. “We are saying no to the early adultization of our children. Childhood is to be lived to its fullest and not kidnapped by screens”, said the president.
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During the speech, the president also alluded to conservatives who criticize network regulation. “There are people who say they are in favor of the family, but decide that the internet is a lawless land, with our children and teenagers exposed to all kinds of danger,” he stated.
The Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation also launched a funding line for research and development of Artificial Intelligence solutions worth R$100 million. The idea is to create technologies to prevent and detect threats to children and adolescents on the internet, helping security agencies.
Lula also highlighted the mobilization of civil society to press for the approval of the law in Congress. “The same civil society that had the competence to lead this debate, to make us capable of creating the best law and the best regulation, needs to continue working, guiding, monitoring the government and denouncing the wrong things, because, without civil society, the law alone will not resolve the issue.”
Motta cited the video by influencer Felipe Bressanim, known as Felca, which drew public attention to the problem. The parliamentarian also highlighted that Congress dealt with the issue quickly.
“Increasingly, they (children and teenagers) had unrestricted access to content that was not designed for their ages. And, worse, in many cases it was poorly designed to victimize them,” he said.
During his speech, Motta stated that the mental health and safety of children and adolescents are at stake. And that “platforms must comply with the obligations imposed, and families and schools must be prepared to do their part and learn to dialogue with this new world.’
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Age measurement
The ECA Digital law determines that there must be age verification for children and adolescents to access certain platforms. The mechanism should replace the self-declaration that occurred until then, when users simply clicked a button claiming to be over 18 years old. The decree signed by Lula this afternoon determines that the ANPD will be responsible for issuing guidelines regarding reliable mechanisms for carrying out this age measurement.
As Estadão showed, the ANPD is considering creating a kind of manual with minimum criteria to be required for age verification tools. Among them are accuracy; non-discrimination, ensuring that they take into account the ethnic diversity of the population; and transparency.
