Recital 25

Age-appropriate and safe online experiences are paramount to protect minors in an increasingly online environment. In order to ensure that minors can benefit from a safe digital environment, providers of online social networking services, video-sharing platform services, online games, AI companions, general conversational chatbots, and software application stores, should put in place appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security of minors when using their service or system. To that end, providers should by-design shape their services and systems in a way that prioritises the wellbeing of minors by embedding privacy, safety and security protections into their design and operation from the start taking into account the evolving capacities of minors. Where the service or system is accessible without registration or authentication, providers should by default configure the design and settings for any unregistered or unauthenticated user in a way which guarantees a high level of privacy, safety and security of minors. Providers should only derogate from those requirements once they have established that the recipient or user is an adult by making use of age assurance in accordance with this Regulation.