President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signs decrees regulating the Digital Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA Digital) this Tuesday (March 17), a law entering into force that expands protections for minors online. The ceremony takes place at the Palácio do Planalto, featuring measures like age verification and bans on harmful content.
On Tuesday (March 17), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signs three decrees regulating Law No. 15.211/2025, the Digital Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA Digital), approved by Congress and sanctioned in September 2025. The law enters into force immediately and complements the 1990 ECA, applying to digital services like social networks, apps, and games aimed at children and adolescents, regardless of company headquarters. National Secretary for Digital Rights Victor Fernandes states the decrees were prepared by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security and the Presidency's Social Communication Secretariat. The National Data Protection Agency (ANPD), elevated to regulatory agency status on February 25 by President Lula, will handle oversight and further regulation, with a timeline to be released after decree publication, according to ANPD president Waldemar Ortunho Júnior. Key changes prohibit loot boxes in games, emotional profiling for targeted ads, and monetization of eroticized minor content. Platforms must prevent sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, harassment, and violence, removing content related to abuse, kidnapping, or grooming, and reporting to authorities while retaining data for at least six months. Children up to 16 can only access social networks linked to a parent's account, with mandatory age verification replacing self-declaration. A UNICEF Innocenti, Ecpat International, and Interpol study shows 19% of Brazilian children and adolescents faced technology-facilitated sexual exploitation from 2024 to 2025. Folha columns praise advances like parental supervision and extrajudicial removal of harmful content but warn for strict criteria in defining entities able to request removals to protect free speech.
