Regulating Minors’ Digital Activities

ENUMINE is an interdisciplinary research project funded by the French National Research Agency, examining the regulation of minors' digital activities through the lens of their autonomisation. The concept of autonomisation refers to the progressive acquisition by minors of the capacity to exercise their rights in the digital environment and requires a shared responsibility among legislators, digital companies, parents, and educators to balance the realisation of children's fundamental rights with the protection of their specific vulnerabilities. In this regard, digital companies bear a particular responsibility as they design the environment in which minors develop their digital practices. The project takes as its legislative starting point the European regulatory framework, particularly the Digital Services Act (DSA), which establishes due diligence obligations for platforms with regard to minors, prohibits targeted advertising based on profiling directed at minors, and imposes systemic risk assessment requirements on very large online platforms. Bringing together law, management sciences, information and communication sciences, and cognitive psychology, the project is structured around three research axes: the legal status of minors online; minors' perception of their rights and capacity to exercise them; and platforms' corporate obligations towards minors. The latter axis notably interrogates how the DSA transforms corporate social responsibility from voluntary self-regulation into a binding legal obligation.