Bundesjugendring at Digital Day 2026
Digitaltag
Lena Bloemacher vertrat den Bundesjugendring beim Panel „Digitale Sicherheit für Kinder und Jugendliche“ auf dem Digitaltag 2026.
At Digital Day 2026, Lena Bloemacher spoke on behalf of the German Federal Youth Council (Deutscher Bundesjugendring) on the panel ‘Digital Safety for Children and Young People’. The discussion centred on the question of how young people can be effectively protected in the digital world without restricting their digital participation.
Digital spaces are places where young people can access information, meet others, learn and participate in society. At the same time, there are real risks there: hate speech and incitement, sexualised violence, disinformation, bullying, social pressure and manipulative platform mechanisms. For the Bundesjugendring, it is therefore clear that protection, empowerment and participation must be considered together.
Lena Bloemacher, Deputy Chair of the Bundesjugendring, also addressed the recommendations for action put forward by the Expert Commission on the Protection of Children and Young People in the Digital World during the discussion. In particular, the Bundesjugendring takes a critical view of the proposed blanket age limit for social media for under-13s. Blanket bans and rigid age limits do not tackle the root causes of the problems. The key risks arise from platform designs and business models that capture users’ attention, amplify problematic content and exploit personal data for commercial gain. Furthermore, there is a danger that usage will simply shift to less regulated and less transparent digital spaces.
In its response to the recommendations for action, the Bundesjugendring therefore calls for platforms to be held to account in a binding manner. This requires joint European solutions rather than unilateral national measures. The Digital Services Act already provides a European legal framework that must be consistently implemented and enforced. The planned Digital Fairness Act offers an opportunity to close further gaps in protection and to regulate manipulative platform design more effectively.
Equally important is the mandatory involvement of young people: decisions about digital environments must not be taken over their heads.
The panel took place on 26 June as part of the nationwide Digital Day. Under the theme ‘Digital Security: Understanding. Communicating. Trust.’, perspectives from youth organisations, academia, business and practice came together.