Safe Digital Environments Law
❗This article is a stub. You can help by expanding it.
#appeals channel in either Zulip or Discord to request removal.An article may be flagged as a stub when it is missing major elements needed to make it useful to a reader. You can help by adding missing sections, verifiable sources, relevant company policies and communications, etc. to make the article more complete.
The Safe Digital Environments Law (in Spanish: Ley de Entornos Digitales Seguros) is a proposed legislation in Chile for banning users under the age of 16 from social media.
Background
With many countries proposing social media bans for minors, such as Malaysia with the Malaysia Online Safety Act 2025 (ONSA), Australia and the European Union proposing to do the same, the Chilean government announced in April 2026 the Safe Digital Environments plan to ban users under 16 from social media. https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2026/04/27/chile-busca-limitar-el-acceso-en-redes-sociales-a-menores-de-16-anos/ https://www.t13.cl/noticia/nacional/plan-entornos-digitales-seguros-ministerio-del-desarrollo-social-presentara-pro-26-4-2026
Proposals
There's no published bill yet, but proposals for the legislations that have been pushed on Brazil, Australia, France, Spain and the European Union. Mentioned proposals from the ministry point to add mandatory age verification to sites that are social media to prevent underage users to access to these sites. The Social Development & Family Minister, María Jesús Wulf, there are plans of adding age verification systems implementing the national digital ID, ClaveÚnica, in order to access to social media. https://elamerica.cl/2026/05/25/para-proteger-a-tus-hijos-en-internet-asi-es-el-plan-nacional-de-entornos-digitales-seguros/
Consumer response
Several users on Reddit have manifested their concerns with privacy and risks of data breaches and concerns about the potential expansion of the ban to more sites of the internet. Some users have also highlighted the incompatibility of the project with the Net Neutrality Law, an established law that prevents telecom services to arbitrarily block, interfere or restrict the access to legal content online.
https://www.reddit.com/r/chile/comments/1u42z0z/ministra_wulf_adelant%C3%B3_posible_control_de_edad_en/ https://www.reddit.com/r/chile/comments/1t6qrh9/ya_chiquillos_es_hora_de_deterner_el_age_check/ https://www.reddit.com/r/chile/comments/1t5zw1i/chile_copia_a_inglaterra_la_ley_online_safety_act/
Government response
According to María Jesús Wulf, the bill has "no objective to limit or restrict childrens' own liberties and rigts, but protecting them for harrassment and harmful aspects online". Also she mentioned the implementations of ClaveÚnica are only "to verify age and not identity". https://www.diarioeldia.cl/noticias/2026/06/12/141022-clavenica-en-redes-gobierno-evalua-verificar-edad-de-menores https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/bbcl-explica/bbcl-explica-notas/2026/06/12/ministra-wulf-adelanto-posible-control-de-edad-en-rrss-a-traves-de-claveunica-que-se-sabe-hasta-ahora.shtml