Argentina moves on digital age of consent

Update September 6, 2026: the bill added more specific obligations for platforms, including traceable parental consent for children under 15, maximum privacy by default, and limits on geolocation, advertising and algorithms that extend usage. It also sets aside fine revenue for digital education and citizenship, and gives the executive branch 90 days to regulate the technical mechanisms.

National lawmaker Carolina Basualdo has introduced a bill to establish digital majority in Argentina at age 15. The measure has been sent to the Chamber of Deputies committees on Families, Children and Youth, and on Communications and Information Technology. Under the proposal, children under 15 could create or keep social media profiles only with prior, free and informed consent from the person with parental responsibility, guardianship or custody.

What would it require from social networks?

The bill would require social media companies to implement age-verification systems that protect users' personal data. It also adopts a legislative definition of a social network, as a platform that lets users create profiles, produce or share content, and interact through content recommendation systems.

Economía Sustentable said the bill explicitly shifts part of digital safety responsibility away from families and onto social media providers, which become central subjects of regulation rather than simple technology intermediaries. According to that analysis, platforms would have to use reliable age-verification systems that go beyond self-declaration, along with traceable parental consent mechanisms.

The same coverage said the proposal requires maximum privacy settings by default for minors. It also orders geolocation, ad profiling and algorithms designed to extend time online to be turned off by default, along with human-staffed support and reporting channels and strict personal data safeguards in line with Law 25.326.

What penalties does it include?

The bill includes fines for noncompliance ranging from 100 to 100,000 minimum monthly wages, according to the proposal published by Tiempo de San Juan. It also allows for full or partial suspension of the platform if the required obligations are not met.

Economía Sustentable added that the financial penalties would be paired with warnings, and that fine revenue would go to national digital education and citizenship programs. The outlet also said that if the law is approved, the executive branch would have 90 days to issue regulations covering the technical implementation of age verification and the rest of the obligations for social networks.

Parlamentario's coverage added that the initiative seeks to mirror the French system and frames children's access to social networks as a shared responsibility among families, the state and platform providers. That approach places the debate around access age, data handling and the role of platforms in verification.

How does it connect with other initiatives involving minors?

At the same time, another initiative in Argentina aims to strengthen protection of children’s and teenagers’ images against social media risks. That proposal adds technical options such as face pixelation, voice distortion or other mechanisms that prevent identification when images are made public.

The proposal seeks to require schools and other actors that share audiovisual content to adopt mandatory safeguards to protect students' identities when images are published. In Buenos Aires coverage of the Ley Ema, Diario Hoy added that the text requires the Línea 102 hotline to be visible in related communications and provides for immediate revocation of consent for image sharing, along with pixelation or voice distortion.

Provincia en Vivo reported that the Ley Ema passed the lower house in Buenos Aires province and includes consent, privacy, digital rights and ethical AI use in the curriculum, as well as mandatory training for education staff.

What is the mood around the debate?

A CIS study by UADE cited by ITSitio found that 86% of Argentines surveyed support regulating social networks and 87% back age-verification mechanisms, a public opinion backdrop favorable to initiatives like the digital majority bill. At the same time, Derechos Digitales said an organization that took part in a closed-door meeting on the Buenos Aires bill sent comments in July 2026 and warned that expanding exceptions to consent and reducing external oversight of data processors, especially the state, would mark a step backward from human rights standards.

Letra P's political coverage also confirmed that the personal data reform promoted by the executive branch is drawing criticism, and that participants in the debate считают it should be withdrawn or overhauled before reaching Congress.