IGF 2025 Global Youth Summit: Too Young to Scroll? Age verification and social media regulation

    Time
    Monday, 23rd June, 2025 (13:30 UTC) - Monday, 23rd June, 2025 (15:00 UTC)
    Room
    Main Hall
    About this Session
    The IGF 2025 Global Summit is a key component of the IGF 2025 Youth Track, and part of the IGF 2025 High-Level Leaders Track. It is organized under the motto "Young leaders for multistakeholder governance of digital tech" as part of a broader series of the youth track’s activities. The Summit is developed through bottom-up consultations amongst designated representatives of the IGF Host Country – Government of Norway, the UN IGF Secretariat, various Youth IGFs, and other youth-driven global Internet governance initiatives such as The Internet Society’s Youth Ambassadors. The Summit will serve as a multistakeholder intergenerational panel between the current and next generation of experts and leaders discussing social media regulation with a specific focus on age verification.

    As digital platforms become integral to daily life, especially for young people, ensuring safe and age-appropriate online experiences has emerged as a global priority. Governments around the world are exploring developing regulatory frameworks aimed at protecting youth from harmful content, while striving to balance safety, security, and the protection of human rights and freedoms. Recent legislative efforts increasingly focus on age verification requirements for social media and adult content platforms. These laws would mandate digital platforms to implement robust age-checking systems designed to prevent users under a certain age from accessing inappropriate or potentially harmful content.

    The summit will bring together policymakers, tech companies, youth advocates, and digital rights experts to discuss policy aspects such as:

    • The effectiveness and challenges of age verification technologies
    • The balance between child protection, privacy, and digital freedom
    • Global best practices and lessons learnt
    • Multistakeholder collaboration in designing inclusive and enforceable regulations

    This intergenerational multistakeholder discussion will be guided by several policy questions:

    • How can online safety for young of social media be enhanced in ways that are consistent with fundamental human rights and freedoms?
    • What are the key technical, legal and ethical challenges in implementing age verification on social media platforms?
    • How can regulatory frameworks for age verification on social media platforms be effectively monitored to ensure compliance and protect youth from harmful content?
    • What are the privacy and cybersecurity risks of using client-side scanning or biometric tools for age verification, and how might these approaches undermine encryption, device integrity, and user trust?
    • What role could international cooperation play in exploring interoperable and rights-respecting approaches to age verification across jurisdictions, while ensuring alignment with cybersecurity best practices and human rights protections?
    • What strategies can be implemented to enhance international cooperation and harmonization of age verification standards across digital platforms, considering the global nature of social media and the need for consistent protection of minors online, particularly in light of diverging regulatory approaches in different countries?

    Draft agenda flow:

    The Summit is designed as an interactive dialogue between current and future generations of experts and learners. After the panel - comprising senior and youth experts - sets the stage, the majority of the session will focus on open discussions with all participants, both in-person and online. The overall flow is:

    • Opening by the moderators
    • Welcome from the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs
    • Panellists set the context 
    • Open floor discussion
    • Concluding remarks by panellists
    • Closing by the moderators

    The summit's outputs will be action-oriented Messages from Youth to be part of the IGF 2025 Report for broad dissemination.

    Speakers will be confirmed soon here.

    Session Time
    Monday, 23rd June, 2025 (13:30 UTC) - Monday, 23rd June, 2025 (15:00 UTC)