Italy's Privacy Chief Warns EU: Don't Spy on Kids to Protect Them

Pasquale Stanzione, president of Italy’s Data Protection Authority, warns that European efforts to protect children online must not create broad systems for identifying and monitoring everyone. In testimony to Italy’s Chamber of Deputies on the proposed EU Kids Act, he supports stronger safeguards against addictive platform design, manipulative recommendations, profiling, and harmful AI interactions. His concern is not age verification itself, but approaches that collect more personal data than necessary or let parental oversight erase children’s privacy.

The argument treats childhood as a gradual move from dependence to independence: children need age- and risk-appropriate protections and parental guidance, but they should not be treated as people whose every online action must be recorded. The EU has reason to harmonize rules because platforms cross borders, yet a shared verification system could become surveillance infrastructure if poorly designed. Stanzione’s proposed direction combines data minimization, proportionate safeguards, responsible platform design, and “digital paideia” - education in thoughtful, responsible technology use. Protecting children, this view insists, also means helping them develop autonomy and freedom rather than teaching them that constant supervision is necessary.