• Employers claim that software developers, platforms and social networks must play a central role in the implementation of age verification, content classification and access control tools.
• The organizations Save the Children, UNICEF and Fundación SOL agree on the urgency of reinforcing child protection in the digital environment from a real co-responsibility between families, administrations and platforms.
• The PP, PSOE, Vox, Sumar and PNV parliamentary groups analyzed the Organic Law Project and agreed on the need for an effective regulation, with political consensus and an educational and preventive approach.
• The Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, stressed that 94% of citizens support the regulation of minors’ access to digital environments and announced that Spain will promote the debate at European level so that the future law will be “a reference in Europe and a guarantor of minors’ digital rights”.

Madrid, October 17, 2025 – The Spanish Association for Digitalization, DigitalES, which includes telecommunications, technology and digital innovation companies, held today at the Congress of Deputies the conference “Childhood and adolescence in the digital era: a legislative and social challenge”, a meeting that brought together institutional, parliamentary and third sector representatives, with the aim of analyzing the risks faced by children on the Internet and move towards a safer, inclusive and responsible digitization.

Isaura Leal, second secretary of the Bureau of the Congress of Deputies, welcomed the attendees to the Congress, and called for reaching the greatest possible consensus among the political groups to achieve a law that protects children and adolescents.

During the inauguration, Miguel Sánchez Galindo, CEO of DigitalES, recalled that six out of ten teenagers access pornographic content, many before the age of eight, and that cyberbullying cases increased by 37% in the last year, which, he stressed, “requires a public and social response at the same pace as digital risks evolve.”

Sánchez Galindo stressed that child protection is a “condition for innovation, not a brake”. He pointed out that DigitalES was the only technology employers’ association to sign the State Pact for the protection of minors on the Internet, and insisted that the future Organic Law on protection must be “an urgent and effective regulation, with a clear distribution of responsibilities along the entire digital value chain”.

In this sense, he pointed out that “software developers, platforms and social networks must play a central role in the implementation of age verification tools, content classification and access control, in line with the European Digital Services Act (DSA)”. For the CEO, the regulation “must also require the immediate removal of illegal content”.

“For the protection of children, neither economic nor technical excuses are valid,” he stressed, warning that we cannot allow a false sense of security in society, “which is what would happen if we are not able to fully integrate the large platforms, social networks and intermediary service providers on the Internet.”

Social block

At the first table of the day, the participating organizations -Save the Children, UNICEF and Fundación SOL-, represented respectively by Catalina Perazzo, Nacho Guadix and Claudia Perazzo, agreed on the urgency of strengthening the protection of children in the digital environment from a shared responsibility between families, administrations and technological platforms.
The organizations stressed the need for:

• Real age verification and parental control mechanisms, accompanied by digital and affective-sexual education for families and minors.
• Greater accountability and transparency of platforms, especially in the prevention of child sexual abuse and exploitation, data processing and content moderation.
• To provide families with resources and reduce the digital divide, so that they can provide effective support.
• Legislate with agility and with a structural view of artificial intelligence, recognizing its impact on exposure, privacy and biases affecting children and adolescents.

Overall, they agreed that technology is not the problem, but rather the lack of social response and coordination, and that digital child protection requires urgent action, cooperation and coherence between legal, educational and technological aspects.

Parliamentary block

In the interventions of the parliamentary groups (PP, PSOE, Vox, Sumar and PNV), all representatives agreed on the need for coordinated action and broad consensus on the future Organic Law, although with different nuances.

Juan Luis Pedreño (PP) suggested that his group will not support the law in its current wording, considering it “impractical and without sufficient basis to be applicable”. He called for a national strategy aligned with Europe and warned of the risk of generating a “false sense of security” if the regulation does not realistically address inappropriate content and the algorithms that promote it.

Adriana Maldonado (PSOE) defended the law as an opportunity to guarantee the digital rights of minors and bring Spain into line with other European countries. She recalled that the European Parliament has approved setting the minimum age for accessing social networks at 16 years, “something that is not being complied with”, and stressed that age verification systems will be the key tool for enforcing the obligations of the platforms.

Alberto Rodríguez Almeida (Vox) claimed the central role of parents in the digital education of children and criticized the fact that the legal text “mentions parents only twice”. He argued that the protection of minors should come from families and not from state control, warning that the government “should not replace parents in their responsibilities”.

Nahuel González (Sumar) argued that regulation should prioritize the general interest over corporate profit. He proposed limiting the power of large technological companies, educating in the ethical use of digital tools and guaranteeing sovereignty over algorithms. “Hate and disinformation sell, and that is where politics must act,” he said.

Nerea Rentería (PNV) stressed the importance of effective coordination between the State and the autonomous communities, respecting territorial competences and linguistic and cultural diversity. She considered it necessary to have a homogeneous level of protection throughout the country and advocated a consensual, realistic law that involves platforms and social networks in the design of safe environments.

At the closing of the meeting, the president of DigitalES, Federico Linares, called for an “ambitious and enforceable” law that distributes responsibilities, demanding more from those who design global digital environments, such as platforms or social networks, and avoiding overburdening those who sustain the networks. “Many of the risks are born in global digital environments designed without sufficient attention to the protection of minors,” he said.

The closing speech was given by the Minister of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, Félix Bolaños, who pointed out that 94% of citizens support the regulation of minors’ access to digital environments. Bolaños announced that the Government will promote collaboration with the private sector to implement effective age verification systems, and announced that Spain will propose the debate at European level, with the aim of making the future law “a benchmark in Europe and a guarantor of the digital rights of minors”.

Full video of the day here

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