Ministerial Instructions on Child Online Protection

Article 3 applies these instructions to any person or organisation that broadcasts or provides content online or provides access to online content, a scope not confined to services aimed at children or to social media platforms.

Article 4 requires digital content providers and retailers to make available digital content filtering tools, maintain plans to manage harmful online content, provide a reporting function for users, give a clear external label describing whether platform content is suitable for children, and put in place a mechanism to prevent children from accessing age-inappropriate content, sites, products, or interactive services.

Article 5 requires internet service providers to inform subscribers of risks to children, support reporting of child abuse, block access to child-abuse material once identified, and make parental-control tools available where applicable. Article 6 requires cybercafes and public Wi-Fi providers in public places to proactively block access to sites known for hosting content harmful to children.

Article 7 requires broadcasters and television service providers to indicate the suitability of content for various age categories. It also requires them to implement technical barriers, including parental controls and age-verification tools, so that children are not exposed to harmful content.

Article 8 requires social media users to self-regulate by refraining from creating or publishing videos of child actors in age-inappropriate roles, and from creating or publishing children's images or videos for entertainment or commercial purposes without the consent of a holder of parental responsibility.

The instructions themselves do not define the term child; they are issued pursuant to Law N° 71/2018 relating to the Protection of the Child, which defines a child as any person under eighteen years of age.