Safe Digital Environments Law

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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 establishing 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.

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, mentioned there are plans of adding age verification systems implementing the national digital ID, ClaveÚnica, in order to access to social media. Proposals also include to add home and school capacitations to teach about the risks of the internet.

Concerns

If the bill follows the idea of applying any kind of restriction to access social media, it might be incompatible with the Chilean constitution and the Net Neutrality Law

Incompatibility with the Chilean constitution

According to the Chapter III, Article 19, section 12 of the Chilean Politic Constitution of the Republic, that mentions constitutional rights and duties:

12°. The freedom to emit opinion and informing, without previous censorship, in any form and in any media, without the prejudice to respond to crimes and abuse that are commited in the excercise of these liberties in conformity to the law, that must be qualified quorum.

The law cannot in any case to establish a statal monopoly over social communication media.

If the restriction to access to social media is imposed with only using ClaveÚnica for verifying age as the alternative to do so, this would result into something that might fit into a statal monopoly and as a form of censorship as well, because it blocks underage users, does not allow any adult that does not want to verify their age and controls who can and cannot access to social media, something that can be considered as social communication media.

Incompatibility with the Net Neutrality Law

With the Net Neutrality Law, there's a conflict with the first dictated core principle of this legislation, that states network services or applications that offer connectivity or communication between users cannot arbitrarily block, interfere, discriminate, hinder, nor restrict the right of any Internet user to use, send, receive or offer any legal content through Internet, including any legal activity or usage done trough the network.

The imposition of a restriction without the user's petition is defined as an arbitrary form of block, interference or even a discrimination, as this only allows a certain group of people to access to certain content (in this case being social media).

Experts & politicians response

Experts claim the possibility to implement such age verification systems in the country is something difficult and pretty complex to be acheived, along with the implementation of ClaveÚnica as the method of age verification raises privacy concerns as the statal system is tied with a person's identity.

Johannes Kaiser, representative of the National Libertarian Party (PNL) responded claiming the addition of these restrictions are violating the rights of privacy and freedom and granting the State to surveil Chileans on the net.

Consumer response

The legislation project has received mixed responses and generated a broad debate in media, with some users approving it and other rejecting and critizicing its effectiveness.

Several users in social media have manifested their concerns involving the possibility the system is used for surveillance and control, censorship, the risks of data breaches and credential theft, the erosion of consumer rights and the right of privacy, and the freedom to access to information on the net. Some users also have higlighted the parental controls exist, and parents should be responsible to control, educate and moderate what their children do online, instead of the State.

Groups of users on Reddit, specially in the r/chile subreddit, have manifested their opposition with the plan, along with concerns about privacy, risks of data breaches, censorship concerns and concerns about the potential expansion of the ban to more sites of the internet, as the project is looking to follow similar international legislations. Some users have also highlighted the incompatibility of the project with the Net Neutrality Law.

Government response

According to María Jesús Wulf, the bill has "no objective to limit or restrict childrens' own liberties and rights, but protecting them from harassment and harmful influences online". Also she claims the implementations of ClaveÚnica are only "to verify age and not identity".