The President of the House of Representatives, Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), defended today (20) Bill (PL) No. 2,628 of 2022which requires digital platforms to take action to prevent the access of children and adolescents to illegal content or considered inappropriate for certain age groups. The protection of children and adolescents in the digital environment was the subject of debate, this Wednesday, in the plenary of the house.
The theme of adultization gained prominence after the release of a video by influencer Felipe Bressanim, Felca, denouncing the use of profiles on social networks with children and adolescents in situations considered inappropriate in order to get engagement and monetization of channels. Motta estimated that the discussion “got out of the screens and won the streets.” “It has become family, bar, school, church conversation. And it’s good that this happened, because today the theme also wins the National Congress.”
“The whole of Brazil saw that video. The whole country crashed into it. But, more than the shock, the country moved,” he said. “And Congress is nothing more than the extent of the street, the ear and skin of society. Protecting our children is not a choice, it is not a gesture of government, it is not a party agenda. It is a moral obligation of any father, any mother, any human being who understands the dimension of others. The word itself comes from creating. Creating requires care, requires respect.”
“A stolen childhood does not recover. If we fail this duty, what meaning does politics have? What does a parliament have? What does meaning have to live in society if we are not able to protect what gives us future?” Asked the mayor, mentioning that over the past few weeks, Brazil has awakened to “an urgency that can no longer be pushed forward.”
“This house has a chance to write a historic page, to build, with the best experts and with the strength of all deputies, the law that will shield the Brazilian childhood against exploitation, violence and perversion of our time,” he said. “This will not just be another law. It will be a pact. A pact between generations, so that every child in this country has the sacred right to live his childhood with dignity, innocence and with respect,” concluded Motta.
Crucial moment
In her speech, the Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Macaé Evaristo, evaluated the moment as “crucial and decisive” for the protection of children and adolescents in the digital environment. “It is essential that this House takes advantage of PL 2,628, which has already undergone a broad dialogue, with direct social participation. We know how much the absence of accountability and regulation contributes to the maintenance of impunity, an unfortunate brand that the country carries when it comes to human rights violations of historically vulnerable groups.”
“Everyone loses with impunity. Everyone is exposed and suffering from these harmful effects. This is exposed in mental health, interpersonal relationships and the census of collective life of children and adolescents and our families, so massacred by illusions that social networks promote in our society when there are no limits and clear regulations.”
>> Get to know a project that regulates social networks for children and adolescents
During the debate, Macaé recalled the “immense democratic potential and access to rights” that the digital world allows, but warned that the absence of rules that protect the fragile inverts this logic, “prioritizing violence, hatred and financial profit over our children’s lives.”
“We all suffer from this reality, but the protection of children and adolescents is a moral and ethical imperative already established in milestones of fundamental importance, such as the Statute of Children and Adolescents (ECA).”
“It is not possible to live in an environment in which the engagement of hatred is the hallmark of content that will be delivered or viewed, leaving the welfare and universal notions of human rights aside. In this account, we lose all and all. For this reason, our Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, through the National Secretariat of Child and Adolescent Rights, manifests itself favorable to project 2,628 of 2022,” the minister concluded.
Shared responsibility
In her speech, the coordinator of government relations at the Alana Institute, organization of defense of children and adolescents, Tayanne Galeno, recalled that the same plenary that promotes debate today approved what she considers the most important article of the Brazilian Constitution: “the only one who combines the absolute and priority words and establishes that family, state and society have the duty to guarantee the rights of children and adolescents”.
“We would like to emphasize the importance that the House of Representatives, under the leadership Dom Presidente Hugo Motta, has to equate the rights of children and adolescents in Brazil, who represent a quarter of the Brazilian population, to other international laws dealing with their rights in the digital environment. Today, Brazilian children and adolescents are being treated with less protection than they are treated in other countries. ‘
“Article 227 of the Constitution brings the notion of shared responsibility, families and society in promoting the absolute priority of children and adolescents. PL 2,628 summons technology companies to, finally, share this responsibility, ”he said.“ We support the approval of this project, so that we have a response to the Brazilian society, which longs for this protection. ”
Otherwise
Also during the debate, the manager of security and welfare policies of the goal in Latin America, Taís Niffinegger, classified the discussion as “as urgent and as necessary as the protection of children and adolescents in a digital environment”.. “For us, youth security on our platforms is a priority. To do so, we adopt a multiple layer approach to protect users, especially the most vulnerable.”
The goal, she said, continually invests in young people on her platforms. Data highlighted by the manager report that, globally, more than 40,000 employees from the company operate in the area of security, including content reviewers and specialized teams in youth and risk groups. Also according to Taís, in the last 10 years, the goal has invested more than $ 30 billion in security onlineprioritizing the integrity of the platform and the safety of users.
“When thinking about our approach to facing child safety, there are three main pillars: prevention, control and response. We want adolescents to have positive and appropriate experiences for their age in our applications and work to prevent criminals from using our platforms to approach minors.”
“We continually invest to detect and remove inappropriate content and behaviors in our services and improve our policies and resources to face these new forms of threat. Our policies do not allow nudity, abuse and exploitation of minors. This includes sharing or requesting children’s exploration images, inadequate interactions and explicit sexualization of minors,” he added.
According to Taís, the company also maintains rules against more implicit forms of sexualization, as well as removing dedicated accounts to share seemingly harmless images of minors when there are comments “or any way to misrepresent this content.” “We use technology to identify adult accounts that demonstrate potentially suspicious behavior and also provide tools such as blocking and denunciation.”
“I reiterate that our efforts to be able to keep young people directly and indirectly protected is continued. We are committed to continuing by improving our technology and investing in new features to provide a safer experience for young people and curb the action of malicious actors,” he concluded.
