🔍 In this 'Hot Item' episode, Amanda Third discusses the proposed ban on social media for under-16s and why a well-intentioned, “world-first” measure could backfire. Framed as a response to youth mental health concerns, the legislation may weaken online safety, deepen inequalities, and encourage circumvention. The discussion highlights why smarter, evidence-based regulation—focused on harmful platform features and children’s rights—matters far more than blanket bans.

🔑 The key messages:

1. Blanket social media bans risk making children less safe, not more.
By removing under-16s from social media platforms altogether, the legislation may strip away critical safety tools such as age-appropriate content moderation and targeted protections. Rather than addressing harmful content and platform design, the ban risks pushing children into unregulated spaces or teaching them how to circumvent safeguards.

2. Children’s digital lives are complex—and regulation must reflect that reality.
Young people use social media to connect, learn, organise, and support their wellbeing, while actively weighing risks and benefits in their online choices. Delaying access can hinder the development of essential digital, critical, and safety literacies—leaving children more vulnerable when they inevitably enter these spaces later.

3. Effective child online safety requires smarter, evidence-based regulation—not political shortcuts.
Australia’s rushed legislation overlooks existing regulatory tools and creates equity gaps that disproportionately affect vulnerable children. A better path lies in regulating harmful platform features, setting clear design standards, and meaningfully involving children in policymaking—an approach the EU is well placed to lead at an international level.

📌 About Our Guest
🎙️ Amanda Third | Western Sydney University
🔗 linkedin.com/in/amanda-third-03228a46

Amanda Third is an internationally recognised expert in children’s rights, digital media, and online safety. She is Co-Director of the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University, where she leads research and advises policymakers on evidence-based approaches to supporting children and young people in digital environments.

#EUdigital #InternetPolicy #TelecomRegulation

🔥 In this 'Hot Item', Kyung Sin Park (aka ‘KS Park’), Professor at Korea University Law School and co-founder and Director of Open Net Korea, & the internet lab discuss the recent joint statement by the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association (ETNO) and the Korea Telecommunications Operators Association (KTOA) on network fees.

📌Hot Item Highlights
⏲️[00:00] Intro
⏲️[00:39] KS Park
⏲️[10:11] Wrap-up & Outro

🗣️ [Network fees] have really suppressed the development of small to mid-sized content providers in Korea. That has not been addressed at all by the joint letter by KTOA and ETNO.

🗣️ The more people choose [specific] content, the more the content’s author has to pay to the telecom operator. It’s basically a taxation on speaking online, if speaking includes making available videos, audio, or files, etc. That's what's happening in Korea.

🗣️ [In 2021]: TeleGeography, found that the transit fee in Seoul was eight times more than London and ten times more than Frankfurt, and you can see the impact on the Internet ecosystem.

🗣️ On the argument of payments being imposed only on ‘large traffic generators’: lots of people make a living on those platforms (...) [which] are bound to shift the burden to users, and that will suppress growth of individuals and SMEs.

➡️ KTOA-ETNO Joint Statement on Network Fees
➡️ Comparisons of transit fee costs: see here and here

In this podcast Klaus Landefeld (DE-CIX Group) & the internet lab discuss what’s wrong with the EC consultation on the future of telecoms

📌Episode Highlights
⏲️[00:00] Intro
⏲️[00:47] What’s Wrong With the EC Consultation on the Future of Telecoms
⏲️[06:08] Outro

📌About Our Guest
🎙️ Klaus Landefeld | Member of the Supervisory Board, DE-CIX Group
🌐 DE-CIX
🌐 Klaus Landefeld

Klaus Landefeld is a member of the supervisory board of the DE-CIX Group. He is an expert on the topics of infrastructure and networks, net neutrality, data retention, telecommunications surveillance, and IT security. Klaus provides advice and support to organisations and authorities across the world, including as a member of the Committee for Technical Regulation in Telecommunications of the German Federal Network Agency (BNetzA). He is also a founding member of multiple internet exchange points.