Italy: Data Protection Authority held a hearing before the 8th Committee of Senate on the updated text of Senate Bill No. 1136 on protection of minors in digital dimension

On 7 October 2025, the Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA) appeared before the 8th Committee of the Senate on the updated text adopted for Senate Bill No. 1136 on the protection of minors in the digital environment. The revised text allows the activation of social media and video-sharing accounts only for persons over 15 years of age and assigns the DPA the responsibility for verifying and sanctioning infringements in accordance with Articles 56(2), 58(2), and 83 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation – GDPR). The draft raises to 16 years the age for autonomous digital consent and restricts parental consent to minors aged 15 to 16. The DPA proposed being assigned monitoring functions under Article 3(4) and participation in the preparation of guidelines under Article 5. The hearing also addressed the development of privacy-preserving age-verification mechanisms, awareness campaigns under Article 6, and the possible attribution of powers to restrict or disable access to online services that breach data-protection provisions.