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Our experts have joined the Panoptykon Foundation's appeal for the urgent implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in Poland. We signed the appeal in the belief that responsible digital transformation must effectively protect children and young people from the harmful practices of the largest online platforms.
Our experts have joined the Panoptykon Foundation's appeal to First Lady Marta Nawrocka for the immediate implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in Poland. We signed this appeal because we have been working for years to promote a responsible and safe digital transformation, including for children.
Digital transformation cannot take place at the expense of children and young people. Today, social media platforms too often ignore their own rules, allowing the youngest users to access their services, and algorithms designed to maximise engagement reinforce content that is harmful to children's mental health and development.
The law implementing the DSA in Poland provides real tools to change this. It obliges platforms to, among other things, effectively protect children under the age of 13, prohibits the targeting of manipulative sponsored content to people under the age of 16, and supports the design of digital services in a way that does not addict or manipulate users' attention.
There are concerns in the public sphere about "censorship". Together with the Panoptykon Foundation, we want to make it clear: the DSA does not restrict freedom of speech. Instead, it introduces accountability for the largest platforms for systemic abuses and real protection of users' rights, especially those of the youngest.
That is why, together with over 130 experts, we are appealing to First Lady Marta Nawrocka to support the implementation of the DSA in Poland. Without this law, parents will continue to be left to their own devices, and the state will lack effective tools to respond to harm to children on the Internet. In our opinion, a safe Internet for children is one of the key elements of the safe digital world in which we all live.
We would like to point out that the DSA is already in force in the EU and Poland is actually the last country in the Union that has not implemented technical regulations, e.g. designating UKE as the Digital Services Coordinator in Poland. The Digital Services Act is not a directive and, like the Artificial Intelligence Act, it enters into force even without national implementation. However, without its implementation, we cannot benefit from many of the DSA provisions in Poland. Last year, Poland was sued by the European Commission for failing to implement the DSA. So we have to do it.
The text of the appeal is available on the Panoptykon Foundation website.