In our Arabic-speaking countries or the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) region, governments are increasingly considering social media bans and age-verification measures to protect children online. These initiatives are mostly influenced by international legislative trends, particularly in Europe and Australia, and are driven by reasonable concerns about children’s exposure to online exploitation, cyberbullying, dangerous content, excessive platform use, and the wider impact of digital technologies on their well-being.
This paper reframes the debate between unrestricted access and a ban; it proposes that we examine the digital infrastructure our children interact with and adopt a shared-responsibility model that distributes responsibility among governments, technology companies, schools, parents, and children themselves. We are also identifying that the big elephant in the room is tech companies; therefore, the paper calls for stronger platform accountability, child safety by design, solid privacy and data protection laws, digital and media literacy, parental support, effective child protection mechanisms, and meaningful participation of children and young people in decisions affecting their digital lives.
Some meaningful policy and process actions are required to reach that point, as this paper recognizes to address these concerns. However, a broad social media ban and mandatory age-verification systems are not the best solutions to the existing, complex problems. This lacks effectiveness, proportionality, and sustainable response. These primary restrictions are leaving many of the structural drivers of online harm unaddressed and underresearched, including algorithmic amplification, persuasive platform design, extensive collection of children’s personal data, weak platform accountability, insufficient investment in digital literacy, lack of knowledge from parents, and child protection systems.
These policy discussions in our region are influenced by legislative models developed in jurisdictions with stronger legal safeguards, independent oversight institutions, and more comprehensive data protection frameworks. Simply importing such approaches without adjusting to local realities may create new privacy, security, and human rights risks by failing to attain their intended child protection objectives.
SMEX believes that protecting children online and protecting their rights are complementary objectives. The policies leading us should therefore be evidence-based, grounded in international human rights standards, and adapted to the legal, institutional, and social realities of different countries in the WANA region. The goal should not be to exclude children from the digital world, but to build a safer, more transparent, and more accountable digital ecosystem in which children can safely learn, participate, express themselves, and thrive.
You can read or download the full paper in Arabic through this link.
Our research paper will soon be available in English on this page.
