Switzerland plans tougher social media protections for minors

The Federal Council will ask Parliament to strengthen online protections for minors, with a dispatch due by the end of June 2027. The plan targets social media platforms and search engines operated by major companies such as Google, Facebook and YouTube. It follows a consultation on the proposed Act on Communication Platforms and Search Engines, which ran from October 2025 to February 2026.

The government says the services covered by the law have become important sources of information and increasingly shape public debate. Its proposal would therefore give users stronger rights and require online providers to explain more clearly how their services operate.

Youth protection forms the most significant addition to the preliminary draft. Platforms and search engines would have to examine the risks their services create or amplify for minors. They would then need to introduce measures designed to reduce those risks. The proposal also targets the commercial use of children’s attention: large platforms would be barred from showing personalised advertising to minors.

The Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications, known by its German abbreviation UVEK, must now prepare the government’s dispatch. Parliament will decide whether the measures become law.

The proposed rules would make risk assessment a legal duty for major online services. Providers would have to analyse whether their products expose minors to harmful risks or intensify existing ones. The source material does not specify which risks would be covered or which technical safeguards companies would have to deploy. Those details will need to emerge during the drafting process and parliamentary debate.

The approach places responsibility on the services themselves. Search engines and social networks would be expected to identify risks linked to the design and operation of their platforms, then take steps to reduce them. The obligation would sit alongside broader requirements for user rights and corporate transparency.

A separate change would expand the reporting procedure to include all content suspected of being unlawful. The proposal would therefore affect how users flag potentially illegal material and how providers process those reports. The government has not announced a single new reporting channel or a specific response deadline in the information available.

Personalised advertising would face a clear restriction. Large platforms would be prohibited from displaying such advertising to minors. The rule would address the use of personal data and online behaviour to target children, while leaving Parliament to determine the final scope and enforcement arrangements.

The consultation produced 214 responses, with a majority supporting the Federal Council’s proposal. The process gave political parties, cantons, organisations and other interested parties an opportunity to comment on the Act on Communication Platforms and Search Engines. The government has now reviewed those responses and instructed UVEK to move towards a dispatch.

Support crosses several major political groupings. The Centre Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Greens back the proposal. The Greens had also introduced parliamentary motions calling for stronger protection of minors online. Their demands helped push youth protection higher on the government’s agenda.

The cantons have also played a significant role. Twenty-two cantons support the proposal, according to the consultation report. Switzerland’s federal structure gives cantonal positions weight as Parliament considers legislation that will affect public authorities, families and businesses across the country.

The consultation outcome does not settle the bill’s future. The Federal Council must still present its dispatch, and both chambers of Parliament will have to examine the text. Amendments remain possible, particularly on the definition of platform risks, the duties imposed on providers and the protection of users’ speech and access to information.

Schwyz, Thurgau and the Swiss People’s Party opposed the proposal during consultation. Their objections centre on the risk that new online rules could restrict freedom of expression and freedom of information. Those concerns will shape the debate as the government turns the consultation draft into formal legislation.

The disagreement reflects a familiar tension in digital regulation. The government wants services with a growing influence on public debate to accept greater responsibility for their impact on users, including children. Opponents fear that wider reporting procedures and provider obligations could encourage excessive removal of lawful material or limit access to information.

The available proposal leaves several practical issues open. It does not set out the precise methods platforms must use to determine a user’s age, identify risks or distinguish unlawful material from lawful speech. It also does not state how regulators would verify compliance or what penalties would apply. These questions matter for minors, families, providers and anyone who uses online services to find news or participate in public discussion.

Parliament will have to weigh the safeguards against these civil liberties concerns when it receives the Federal Council’s dispatch.

The next decisive deadline is the end of June 2027, when UVEK must complete the government’s dispatch. That document will translate the consultation results into a concrete legislative proposal for Parliament. Until then, the final duties for social media platforms and search engines remain subject to drafting and political negotiation.

For families in Switzerland, the proposed framework would place youth protection more directly on the agenda of the companies that design and operate online services. Large platforms could face a ban on personalised advertising to minors, while providers generally would need to assess and reduce risks affecting young users. Users could also gain a broader route for reporting content suspected of breaking the law.

The measures would apply in a media environment where platforms and search engines increasingly influence how people obtain information and engage in public debate. That influence explains why the Federal Council has paired youth protection with transparency and user rights.

After the dispatch reaches Parliament, the two chambers will decide whether to adopt the legislation and how to amend it. The final law could therefore differ from the current preliminary draft, especially on implementation, oversight and the boundaries of content reporting.