La sección "Forum" del n.° 48 de la
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I. The ongoing digital transformation can be described through a particularly effective hermeneutic framework for the study of contemporary times, i.e., the "new world"
The aim of the present Forum is to explore, through the tools of law and philosophical reflection, certain issues resulting both from minors' access to technology and online services, and more generally to "digital environments"
Datafication, technological mediation, and hyper-mediation characterize the new environments in which people live, where various forms of risk
For example, in addition to the many manifestations of "criminal informatics"
Beyond these sectoral aspects, which certainly deserve dedicated attention (also with "field studies", within the digital environments themselves), when it comes to protecting the rights of minors, the issue of risk has a much broader scope, to the point that it has shaped a paradigm connected to the almost obsessive search for
II. It is around the notion of risk that the major regulatory measure revolves (the AI Act), recently approved by the European Union after a long gestation, a detailed preparatory process, and extensive discussion
In this scenario, where the issue of
The various contributions will also focus on binding EU legislation, particularly the GDPR (2016), the Digital Services Act (2020), and amendments to age-related regulations in European border control procedures
III. This is a new frontier in the debate on the rights of minors, continuously shifting between "old" and "new" rights
As has been emphasized, "social participation can be intended as participation in communication, with adults and other children"
Information is constructed through the joint basis of action and understanding: information cannot be produced or understood by action alone; both action, which produces information, and understanding, which communicates it, are necessary. Moreover, understanding relates not only to information but also to the reasons or intentions behind the action: the realization of communication requires clarification of the meaning of the action. Without understanding there is no communication; however, understanding is only made visible in communication through new action. Therefore, while action alone does not accomplish communication, it is equally essential as understanding for communication to occur.
In this context, social participation - clearly highlighted in the scenario of the rapid development of new technologies and their impact - "can mean both action and understanding: however, only participation as action is visible in communication and can be observed as 'active' participation". Active participation takes place in various social systems involving children, adolescents, and young people; "however, it is evident that active participation does not necessarily imply having a significant influence on communication"
The concept of "agency", borrowed from general sociology
Within this framework, the right to participation alone is not sufficient to ensure the importance of the actions of children and adolescents: only the right to agency can be considered a fundamental social basis of the rights of minors, as it allows them to actively participate in the choice and transformation of the social conditions affecting their actions and experiences
The approach outlined above and referenced to in various forms, whether explicitly or implicitly, in different contributions, seems an interesting path to follow, capable of going beyond the "risk paradigm" with its constraints, fears, and nearly inevitable obsessions.
In this different and alternative perspective, the right to agency combines
All in all, what emerges from the contributions is a different picture from the one presented by the media and disseminated in common sense, highlighting the complex network of interactions between minors, platforms and contexts within a digital landscape that, while characterized by risks (which undoubtedly exist), is also permeated by new spaces and modes of relationship and engagement.
Additionally, it is marked by a variety of social dynamics and techno-cultural dimensions that, beyond rules and risk prevention measures (and, in some cases, appropriate prohibitions and sanctions), primarily require awareness and, consequently, practices of relationship, education, and social engagement within the open and borderless spaces of digital citizenship.
The path outlined - which seems to allow for the integration of knowledge, awareness and power
The reference is obviously to the well-known novel by Huxley, A., "Il Mondo nuovo" (1932), in Huxley, A.,
Bello, B.G., (In)giustizie digitali. Un percorso su tecnologie e diritti, Pisa, Pacini, 2023, 10. The reference is to Mauss, M., Saggio sul dono. Forme e motivo dello scambio nelle società arcaiche (1923-1924), Aime, M. (preface), Italian trans., Turin, Einaudi, 2002, 160. The archaic gift, as a total social fact, indicates a relational totality, in short, a community constituted by the circulation of gifts and counter-gifts among all its members. Mauss writes: "The souls merge with things; things merge with souls. Lives intermingle, and thus people and things, confused together, exit their own spheres and blend: this is nothing but the contract and the exchange. [...] Exchanges do not concern individual persons but the entire collective". Michele Martoni has fruitfully revisited this point to explore certain processes in digital society, such as datification, with particular reference to minors (Martoni, M., "Un'autonomia ostacolata. Limiti cognitivi, incompetenze e design ingannevoli nella trasformazione digitale", Sociologia del diritto, 1, 2024, 7-32, 9). Martoni aligns Bello's reference with that found in the work of Garapon A., and Lassègue J., La giustizia digitale. Determinismo tecnologico e libertà, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2021, 79.
The expression is actually quite controversial and immediately brings into question the dimension of education and awareness in the use of technological and digital devices. In this perspective: Di Bari, C.,
For a first overview of some challenges, which also concern the approach of parents and family members,
For an inquiry through the pivotal categories of private law,
Cf. Ingram, G. P. D.,
Beck, U.,
Pietropaoli, S.,
For a broad examination: Bello, B. G., and Scudieri, L. (eds.),
In a wide literature,
For some profiles also of a psychological nature,
For an accurate investigation of these new challenges,
Greco, T., "Tecnologie giuridiche della sicurezza", in Buzzacchi, C.; Costa, P., and Pizzolato, F. (eds.),
Over 3.000 amendments were discussed, and the previous development process involved institutional and economic stakeholders, trade unions, and consumer associations. I had the opportunity to discuss these aspects with Hon. Brando Benifei, the co-rapporteur of the measure at the European Parliament, during the "AI Act Summer School" coordinated by the University of Udine from September 3 to 6, 2024, in particular during the afternoon session on Wednesday, September 4, coordinated by Prof. Elvio Ancona, which also saw the participation of colleagues Prof. Federico Costantini and Prof. Nicola Lettieri.
For an accurate discussion of this articulation, I refer to De Vanna, F., "Diritto e nuove tecnologie: il nodo (controverso) della regolazione giuridica",
"The digital nature of things" - it has been stated - "forecasts a 'spontaneous order', in which "a set of social groups connect through evolutionary and competitive means, establishing private rules that cease to be purely contractual, becoming also social and institutional" (Venanzoni, A., "Intersezioni costituzionali. Internet e Intelligenze Artificiali tra ordine spontaneo, natura delle cose digitale e garanzia dei diritti fondamentali", Forum di Quaderni costituzionali, April 27, 2018, 8). The author continues: "[i]n a recent essay on the regulation of artificial intelligence and the internet, Raffaele Bifulco has questioned, drawing on Hayekian theories of spontaneous order, the potential existence of a digital nature of things as a further step beyond the recognition of a spontaneous order. Spontaneous order, in conceptual terms, presupposes competitive elaboration among individuals embedded in social systems, which systems change through chain inferences, from networks, through evolutionary means" (ibid). The reference is Bifulco, R., "Intelligenza artificiale, internet e ordine spontaneo", in Pizzetti, F. (ed.), Intelligenza artificiale,protezione dei datipersonali e regolazione, Turin, Giappichelli, 2018, especially 394 et seq. Not by chance, in Hayek's theoretical partition (Hayek von, F. A., "Notes on the Evolution of Systems of Rules of Conduct", in Hayek von, F. A., Studies of Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1967, 72), one of the fundamental points is precisely the evolutionary afflatus of connective competition generated by the intersections between social systems, whose rules are adopted and then elaborated and refined on the basis of comparative observation, focusing on the actions of individual actors around which the systems are structured. The Internet offers strong analogies with this approach. Thus - borrowing Bifulco's words - it is defined as "a social environment in which the individual continues to set their own agenda; individuals aggregate around interests, actions, facts, elements, they become pluristructured and remain engaged despite the tendential evanescence of interests".
For a thorough analysis, which focuses on the legal and institutional aspects of the "neo-liberal" framework, please refer to Giolo, O.,
On this aspect, see my contribution in this forum. For a detailed discussion of some significant cases and the related investigations in antitrust markets,
On this important document refer to the contribution of M. d. C. Barranco Avilés, in this Forum.
On this point
B. G. Bello contribution lingers on these profiles in this Forum.
The concept of "agency" is widely recognized in studies on children's social participation (Bjerke, H., "It's the Way To Do It. Expressions of Agency in Child-Adult Relations at Home and School",
For a very useful theoretical framework,
On this point and for the following considerations, see Baraldi, C., "Le basi sociali dei diritti dei bambini", Jura Gentium, 2015 (forum on La Convenzione internazionale dei diritti dell'infanzia e dell'adolescenza [1989]: riflessioni eprospettive, Casadei, T. and Re, L. [eds.]) [online], available at:
Baraldi, C., "Promotion of Migrant Children's Epistemic Status and Authority in Early School Life",
Luhmann, N.,
Baraldi, C., "Le basi sociali dei diritti dei bambini", cit.
Giddens, A.,
Floridi, L.,
For an overview of the main dilemmas, see Salanitro, U. (ed.),
Baraldi, C., and Iervese, V., "Observing Children's Capabilities as Agency", in Stoecklin, D., and Bonvin J.-M. (eds.),
On this aspect,
Baraldi, C., "Le basi sociali dei diritti dei bambini", cit.
Heritage, J., and Raymond, G., 'The Terms of Agreement: Indexing Epistemic Authority and Subordination in Talk-in-interaction",
Lastly,
Nardelli, E.,
It is enough here to mention
On these tensions, please see the beautiful pages of Rodotà, S.,
Casadei, T., "Guest Editor's Introductory Note. Regulation, Awareness, Agency: Beyond the 'Risk Paradigm'",