New Decree for Digital Safety in Mexico
Claudia Sheinbaum, the President of Mexico, has recently enacted a decree aimed at ensuring secure digital environments for children and adolescents. This initiative outlines a series of requirements that digital platforms must adhere to in order to protect younger users from exposure to content that promotes various forms of violence, harassment, and self-destructive behaviours. Although compliance with these provisions is mandatory, the regulatory framework does not include penalties for platforms that fail to meet the requirements.
Luisa María Alcalde, the legal advisor to the Federal Executive, emphasised that the decree is based on Article 101 Bis of the General Law on the Rights of Children and Adolescents. This article mandates the state to ensure safe internet access and usage for minors, implementing measures to prevent and address incidents of cyberbullying and other forms of aggression that could compromise their privacy, security, and dignity.
Alcalde further explained that the federal administration has engaged in discussions with representatives from various technology companies to review the decree’s content and deliberate on its implementation. She highlighted the consensus reached with major players such as Meta, Microsoft, Apple, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Google, and Huawei. “We acknowledge the proactive stance of these platforms, which recognised the necessity of such an instrument and shared their progress in identifying and removing harmful content,” she added.
Key Provisions of the Decree
The decree explicitly prohibits digital services from allowing younger users to access, be exposed to, or receive recommendations for content, images, or videos that promote the following behaviours:
- Hate speech and violent extremism.
- Sexual abuse, exploitation, or violence.
- Suicidal behaviour, self-harm, and eating disorders.
- Violence within school environments.
- Harassment and cyberbullying.
- Illegal activities.
- Explicit sexual material.
Technology companies are required to ensure the safety and protection of children by integrating mechanisms for age verification, parental control tools, reporting systems, and default privacy settings at the design stage. They must also swiftly identify and remove accounts or posts that promote any form of violence and classify materials according to age appropriateness.
Additionally, the decree mandates that platforms cooperate with security and justice agencies. They are required to establish a 24/7 contact point for responding to information requests from authorities, preserving and providing evidence to facilitate ongoing investigations, and implementing an immediate alert system for detecting life-threatening content.
Concerns Regarding Regulatory Gaps
It is important to note that while the decree is compulsory, it lacks a framework for penalties against non-compliant services. “If we observe non-compliance, we would then consider moving towards legislation that would also impose sanctions on platforms,” Sheinbaum pointed out. Alcalde also noted that the decree instructs the Legal Advisory Council to set up a working group to coordinate potential additional regulations that could enhance protection and safety in digital spaces.
Despite the federal government’s view that the decree marks a significant initial step towards holding platforms accountable for the dissemination of violent content, experts are raising concerns about gaps that may undermine its effectiveness. The decree specifies that obligations apply to digital platforms, defined as internet services that facilitate interaction, communication, and content sharing among users.
However, last week, José Antonio Peña Merino, head of the Digital Transformation and Telecommunications Agency (ATDT), clarified that encrypted messaging services would not be subject to these provisions. “Yet it is precisely within these channels, as well as in gaming chats mentioned by the president, where the coordination motivating this decree is most likely to occur,” remarked telecommunications specialist Gerardo Flores.
Ambiguities and Implications for Free Speech
Flores further pointed out that the decree presents “significant omissions.” “No one has explained how to determine who qualifies as a minor, a prerequisite for the entire framework of prohibitions to be applicable. Categories such as ‘illegal behaviours’ or ‘hate speech’ lack clear definitions, effectively placing the onus on platforms to decide what constitutes a violation,” he stated.
Fernando Gutiérrez Cortés, Director of the Division of Humanities and Education at the Tecnológico de Monterrey, concurred that the decree contains vague definitions that could pose risks to freedom of expression. “The challenge lies in defining these terms precisely, as freedom of expression is at stake. Depicting violence does not inherently equate to promoting it. A journalist can document a war without inciting violence; likewise, a researcher may study extremist movements without promoting violence,” he explained during an interview.