{"id":921,"date":"2026-09-15T09:50:46","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T07:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialmediaban.lisboncouncil.net\/blog\/?p=921"},"modified":"2026-09-15T12:22:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T10:22:22","slug":"road-to-the-state-of-the-european-union-policy-wishlist-series-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socialmediaban.lisboncouncil.net\/blog\/road-to-the-state-of-the-european-union-policy-wishlist-series-iv\/","title":{"rendered":"Road to the State of the European Union \u2013 Policy Wishlist Series IV"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Centring Data and Consumer Protection to Change Platform Business Models<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>WISH: Centring consumer and data protection to drive systemic change<\/strong><br><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am always baffled by policymakers&#8217; awareness of the toxic and dangerous dynamics of large online platforms for children and teenagers, and by their reliance on age-gating proposals to fix the issue. The real question is not whether age-gating works, but why platforms can keep doing business as usual. The $13 billion settlement Meta recently accepted, in exchange for not further disclosing its toxic business practices, shows that there is still no interest in genuine change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The suppression of organisations that advocate for enforcing the digital services act shows what policymakers and society can expect from efforts to reshape digital spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Large online platforms hold vast amounts of personal data, giving them the power to analyse and exploit individual vulnerabilities, and quietly shape user behaviour. According to the 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lse.ac.uk\/media-and-communications\/research\/research-projects\/eu-kids-online\/reports-and-findings\/Comparative2026\">EU Kids Online comparative study<\/a>, children are acutely aware of this imbalance. 40% of 10- to 16-year-olds explicitly worry that apps and websites will share their personal data without consent. This issue goes far beyond child-specific safety concerns; it poses a fundamental challenge to autonomy, agency and equality across the entire digital ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"hc-container-0\" class=\"hc-container col-xs-12 my-4\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Policymakers and society have failed us by not having a real conversation about how to design technical systems in an autonomy-respecting way.&nbsp; We are stuck in the perception that this is just the way systems are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We need to stop centring seemingly simple technological solutions and instead fight data-hungry business models and the extensive surveillance and manipulation mechanisms they rely on. <strong>Data protection and consumer protection can translate into child protection; without surveillance-driven business models and addictive designs, we would not have this conversation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If I could pick one thing for upcoming legislative planning, it would be to <strong>centre consumer and data protection to create systematic change<\/strong> that shapes digital futures that are safe and fair for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Elina Eickst\u00e4dt is one of the spokespersons at Chaos Computer Club (CCC) and a board member of the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) in Germany. Ms Eickst\u00e4dt<\/em> <em>oversees the work of CCC at the European and international levels, including internet governance and standardisation. In her capacity at the OKF, she oversees the organisation&#8217;s strategic direction and advises on tech policy issues. Her professional background is in information technologies security and software engineering, where she has been active in several open-source projects and has previously created and maintained her own project. She holds a bachelors degree in applied computer science from the University of applied science Hamburg and is currently working on a masters degree in Techphilosophy at the Technical University of Berlin. She works as a freelance researcher and advisor<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Centring Data and Consumer Protection to Change Platform Business Models WISH: Centring consumer and data protection to drive systemic change I am always baffled by policymakers&#8217; awareness of the toxic and dangerous dynamics of large online platforms for children and teenagers, and by their reliance on age-gating proposals to fix the issue. The real question [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Road to the State of the European Union \u2013 Policy Wishlist Series IV - Evidence Hub on Social Media Ban for Kids<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Centring Data and Consumer Protection to Change Platform Business Models WISH: Centring consumer and data protection to drive systemic change I am always\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/socialmediaban.lisboncouncil.net\/blog\/road-to-the-state-of-the-european-union-policy-wishlist-series-iv\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Road to the State of the European Union \u2013 Policy Wishlist Series IV - 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