Latin Analysis: Brazil’s Child Online Safety Regulation Marks a Regional First
August de Richelieu
The passage of Brazil’s Digital Statute of the Child and Adolescent marks a decisive shift in how the country approaches platform regulation. Signed into law on September 17, 2025, it introduces a sweeping set of obligations on companies that design digital products that are accessible to children and adolescents. Rather than treating online safety as an extension of generic data protection, Brazil has pursued a dedicated child-focused framework that anticipates how platform incentives, data collection, and engagement design interact with the vulnerabilities of younger users. It is the first law of its kind in Latin America, and it places Brazil at the forefront of a region that has until now moved more cautiously in structuring digital oversight.
Background And Regulatory Passage
Brazil’s Digital Statute of the Child and Adolescent (ECA) emerged through accelerated legislative momentum driven by public concern about children’s safety online. Congress approved the law within days following public pressure after a prominent digital influencer highlighted concerns about the adultization of children online. The bill was introduced in 2022 and passed the Senate unanimously in November 2024, before being approved by the Chamber of Deputies in and returning to the Senate where it was signed into law by President Lula on 17 September 2025. This passage marked the second significant federal intervention in the regulation of digital platforms, following an earlier Supreme Court ruling that removed safe harbor protections and established liability standards for platforms on content moderation.
The Digital ECA was approved as a part of a broader national strategy for digital policy titled the Digital Brazil Agenda, which also includes a Digital Fair Competition Bill and a tax and infrastructure programme to encourage investment in local data centers and digital infrastructure. Together these initiatives reflect an attempt to expand regulatory capacity and govern digital markets through a structural approach focused on privacy competition and domestic technological development.
Purpose and Scope of the Regulation
The law covers any online service likely to be accessed by children under 12 and adolescents aged 12 to 18 regardless of where the service is developed or operated. These services include apps, app stores, online games, and social networks. Likely access is established through criteria such as ease of access, probability of use and potential risks to privacy or bio-psychosocial development.
The framework requires platforms to adopt design-based safeguards that prioritize privacy and safety by default and ensure transparency in how information is presented to young users and their guardians. Companies must also inform users of age classification protocols and provide clear information enabling informed decision making about product settings. Providers must conduct risk assessments consider developmental stages and implement technical security to prevent inappropriate access.
The law also bans several problematic business practices, including profiling minors for targeted advertising, emotional analysis for commercial purposes, and the use of loot boxes in video games targeted to or likely to be accessed by minors. Platforms must also develop mechanisms for reporting violations and remove dangerous content, which could relate to exploitation, kidnapping, grooming, or sexual violence. Associated data must be retained for six months for investigative purposes.
Furthermore, platforms with more than 1 million underage users in Brazil must publish semi-annual reports covering complaints content moderation decisions risk management and compliance efforts. These platforms must also provide access for academic research under confidentiality conditions. App stores and operating systems must adopt age verification systems and obtain guardian consent for downloads. Social networks must allow accounts of users under 16 to be linked to guardians and enable appeals in cases of suspension related to age violations.
Enforcement authority rests with the National Data Protection Agency (ANPD) which has full regulatory and sanctioning power, including fines up to 10% of a company’s Brazilian revenue, or 50 million reais per violation, alongside possible suspension of services. ANPD is also authorized to issue blocking orders in coordination with ANATEL and CGIbr.
Although the statute has been widely welcomed by child-safety advocates, some companies have warned that its breadth creates a significant operational burden. Unlike earlier rules focused mainly on content moderation, the Digital ECA requires firms to re-engineer core aspects of their products and business models, like interface design and data flows. Building age-verification systems, redesigning features to default to child-safe settings, and maintaining detailed compliance records all demand sustained investment and technical capacity that some platforms, especially smaller companies, may struggle to meet. Some industry stakeholders thus argue that implementation and oversight will prove difficult in practice. However, despite these concerns, the law marks an important step forward in strengthening online protections and positions Brazil at the forefront of global child-safety regulation.
Geopolitical Significance
Brazil is now the first country in Latin America to adopt a child-specific digital privacy statute. Its approach offers a robust alternative to the incremental and partial regulatory strategies prevalent across the region. By embedding obligations at the design stage and applying them to a broad range of digital services, Brazil sets a precedent that other countries may seek to replicate when confronting comparable risks for minors online.
The timing of Brazil’s legislation also intersects with progress toward a regulatory rapprochement with the EU. The statute aligns structurally with European regulatory frameworks such as the European Union’s Digital Services Act and the UK’s Online Safety Act, all aimed at protecting minors online through privacy protections, age verification, and platform accountability. In September 2025, the European Commission published a draft adequacy decision finding that Brazil’s level of personal data protection is essentially equivalent to that of the EU under the General Data Protection Regulation. If formalized, this adequacy decision would remove the need for additional legal safeguards such as standard contractual clauses, allowing seamless data transfers between Brazil and EU member states.
This development has substantial implications. It signals that data governance in Brazil is now sufficiently robust under European criteria and that European firms can process personal data in Brazil without extra administrative burden, strengthening Brazil’s potential role as a strategic data hub. This prospect is reinforced by tax and infrastructure incentives under the Digital Brazil Agenda. As a result, Brazil may become an increasingly attractive destination for European investment in cloud services, data centers, and digital platforms seeking privacy compliant and cost-effective architecture.
Moreover, by adopting a child-focused law that meets European privacy standards, Brazil positions itself not just as a recipient of regulatory frameworks but as a contributor to global digital governance norms. For countries in the Global South that lack extensive privacy regimes, Brazil’s model offers a blueprint for comprehensive regulation – one that combines data protection, platform accountability, content moderation, and enforcement capacity. In this sense, Brazil is not simply reacting to digital risks, it is also asserting regulatory sovereignty and shaping the direction of technological governance beyond its borders.
Brazil’s Digital ECA represents more than a regulatory intervention. It is the first comprehensive child-centred digital statute in Latin America, positioning Brazil not as a pioneer in designing platform governance that attempts to prioritize user safety and rights. Alignment with global partners like the EU and closer data integration may strengthen Brazil’s international standing, but the more significant outcome lies at home: in setting a precedent that has quietly shifted the centre of gravity in global digital governance.