Andorra Endavant Proposes Amendments to Strengthen Child Digital Protections
The opposition party seeks to enhance safeguards against online threats like cyberbullying and porn while criticizing the bill's vague terms and excessive state powers. Amendments prioritize parental roles and reduce administrative overreach.
Key Points
- Removes Andorra Digital's coordinating role, shifting duties to ministries to cut bureaucracy.
- Expands school mobile phone bans to playgrounds, dining areas, and extracurriculars with secure storage.
- Rejects under-16 social media bans, favoring family campaigns, parental controls, and recommendations.
- Limits social services interventions to severe cases, opposes vague 'active supervision' for parents.
Andorra Endavant has submitted amendments to the government's bill modifying the Qualified Law on the Rights of Children and Adolescents, aiming to strengthen protections for minors against digital risks while reducing administrative burdens and family intrusions.
General Councillor Noemí Amador presented the package, which addresses concerns over digital addictions, cyberbullying, early exposure to pornography, and other online threats. The party supports the bill's intent but criticises it for granting the administration overly broad powers and using vague definitions that could lead to legal uncertainty and disproportionate interventions.
Key proposals include removing Andorra Digital's central coordinating role in child digital protection policies. Andorra Endavant argues these duties can be handled directly by relevant ministries, avoiding new permanent administrative structures.
The amendments would expand mobile phone bans in schools beyond classroom hours to include playgrounds, dining areas, and supervised extracurricular activities. Devices would need to be securely stored on school premises throughout the full school day.
On social media, the party opposes government-imposed blanket bans for under-16s. Instead, it calls for clear information campaigns for families, public recommendations, and voluntary use of parental controls and digital filters, allowing parents to set appropriate limits.
The group also seeks to narrow social services interventions linked to digital habits, restricting them to severe, repeated, and verifiable cases while upholding proportionality and minimal interference principles. It rejects the bill's "active supervision" requirement for parents as overly ambiguous, warning it could turn families into subjects of constant oversight or potential sanctions.
Amador stressed that safeguarding minors should not justify added bureaucracy or undermine parents' educational role. The proposals align partially with recent comments from Andorra Digital director David Vicente, who advocated awareness, guidance, and proximity over outright prohibitions.
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