Children's rights, sharenting & kidfluencing - these topics were the focus of a panel discussion at the conference „Content with conscience: on the support of Influencers and Online Content Creators“, which was hosted by the Belgian government as an event of its current EU Council Presidency on 27 February 2024 in Brussels. Against the backdrop of the increasing importance of social media and the associated impact that influencers also have on children and young people, the Belgian government invited government representatives of European countries, influencers, civil society organisations and service to exchange views. Together, they discussed whether and how possible rules of conduct can help influencers to use their influence responsibly.

In the panel "Ethics of kidfluencers, mom/dadfluencers, sharenting", we pointed out, based on our experience in the project "Child protection and children's rights in the digital world", that an informed and free consent of the child is central to whether and in what context content relating to the child can be published online. The possibility of informed consent, especially for young children, and the free decision of children who are dependent on their parents pose particular challenges. The possibility of having published content deleted was also discussed. One of the difficulties here is that providers generally do not have any organised procedures for this and effective processes for enforcing the right to be forgotten are not yet sufficiently established. The out-of-court dispute settlement mechanism pursuant to Article 21 DSA is also intended to provide a remedy in such cases. This means that users can contact an appropriately certified body to seek clarification on decisions made by providers with which they disagree. Nevertheless, it makes sense to check in advance what content and data is published on the internet, and to use this opportunity to minimise data, e.g. by using images that do not depict a child's face. Further information on the conscious depiction of children on the Internet can also be found on this page of CRIN, the Child Rights International Network.