Bill 426.

Summary.

The bill establishes an online safety framework to protect the rights and well-being of children and adolescents on digital platforms and social media. It would cover providers that intentionally direct services to users within Panama or have a significant presence of users in the country, regardless of where they are based. It also covers minors present in the Republic of Panama, irrespective of origin or citizenship. The bill defines online services, social media, harmful, illegal and unlawful content, age verification, parental controls and risk of harm. Its examples of unlawful content include conduct defined as an offense in the Criminal Code (Código Penal).

Providers would have to assess platform risks at intervals no less frequent than annually, adopt technical and organizational measures to prevent unlawful content and mitigate harmful content, and publish content policies that allow appeals. They would provide privacy-conscious age verification, parental controls and safe default settings, while restricting targeted advertising to minors. They would publish transparency reports every six months and explain their moderation rules. They would also maintain accessible complaint and reporting systems, give reasoned responses and provide an independent internal review of initial decisions. Cooperation with Panamanian authorities would include supplying information for duly authorized investigations and taking part in awareness initiatives.

Social media services and online services that may pose a significant risk to minors' development would set a minimum access age and verify users' ages. Services directed at children and adolescents would apply restrictive privacy defaults, tools for limiting inappropriate content, and restrictions on adult-initiated communication, subject to the consent and supervised-context exceptions described in the bill. They would also restrict or prohibit specified forms of targeted advertising and advertising for products or services harmful to minors.

Once providers become aware of illegal and unlawful content, they would have to remove it promptly, enable confidential reports when requested and retain auditable records of their decisions. They could remove harmful content, restrict access to it or attach labels and warnings. They would immediately report detected illegal and unlawful content to the competent authorities, supplying information for investigations and preserving digital evidence.

The bill designates a tripartite commission as the Regulatory Authority (Autoridad Reguladora). Its members would represent the National Public Services Authority (Autoridad Nacional de Servicios Públicos), the National Secretariat for Children, Adolescents and the Family (Secretaría Nacional de Niñez, Adolescencia y Familia, SENNIAF) and the National Authority for Government Innovation (Autoridad Nacional de Innovación Gubernamental). The authority would supervise providers, investigate and audit them, issue directives following public consultation, impose corrective measures and sanctions, conduct education programs and cooperate with other authorities. Violations would be classified as minor, serious or very serious. In setting sanctions, the authority would consider harm, affected users, the provider's conduct and financial capacity, its cooperation and its corrective measures. Fines would be paid into the National Treasury (Tesoro Nacional) and directed primarily to online safety and child protection programs.

The bill's provisions would operate in harmony with the Personal Data Protection Law (Ley de Protección de Datos Personales) and, where the bill does not expressly regulate a matter, with the Integral Protection System Law (Ley de Sistema de Protección Integral). Providers would minimize minors' data, obtain informed and verifiable parental consent for its processing, allow requests for its deletion and refrain from commercializing it, except under an express legal obligation or a reasoned court order. The Regulatory Authority and the Executive Branch (Órgano Ejecutivo) would adopt implementing regulations. The proposed law would take effect twelve (12) months after promulgation in the Official Gazette (Gaceta Oficial); the authority and providers would use that period to prepare for implementation.

The proposal concerns those public bodies and the National Treasury, as well as digital platforms, social media, advertising and online communications services, and children, adolescents, their families and legal representatives.