Child vulnerabilities in the digital environment: comparative insights and operational guidelines

Abstract

The article investigates the condition of child vulnerability in the digital environment through a legal and comparative lens, aiming to reconcile protection with the recognition of children’s evolving capacities. Embracing the concept of vulnerability as a dynamic and multilayered notion, it analyses how European regulatory instruments such as the GDPR, the Digital Services Act and the Artificial Intelligence Act address children’s rights within a risk-based governance framework. The discussion is enriched by a comparative analysis of the United Kingdom and France, whose regulatory models offer advanced examples of child-centred and participatory digital regulation. Particular attention is devoted to the online search for origins by adopted minors, a paradigmatic case where digital exposure intersects with identity-related and emotional vulnerability. Building on these insights, the paper formulates operational guidelines and policy recommendations directed at legislators, institutions, professionals, and industry actors. Ultimately, it argues that digital literacy and education constitute the cornerstone of a rights-based approach capable of transforming child vulnerability into agency and fostering a genuinely inclusive digital citizenship.