Meta settlement sets new standard for child safety online: Terre des Hommes calls for stronger Dutch action

The landmark settlement requiring Meta to pay up to $17.1 billion and introduce major child-safety changes to Facebook and Instagram should accelerate action to protect children online in the Netherlands and across Europe, Terre des Hommes Netherlands says.

The agreement announced in the United States requires Meta to introduce measures including limits on children’s use of Facebook and Instagram, nighttime restrictions, stronger age assurance, safer content controls and independent auditing. The settlement follows allegations that Meta designed its platforms in ways that harmed children, misled the public about their safety and improperly collected children’s data. Meta denies wrongdoing.

For Terre des Hommes, the significance of the settlement goes beyond Meta and beyond the United States. It demonstrates that governments can hold technology companies accountable for the environments they create for children and can require changes to the design of their products.

Mickey Andeweg, spokesperson for children’s rights at Terre des Hommes Netherlands, says:

“This settlement shows that child safety can be translated into concrete requirements for technology companies. Decisions about how platforms are designed determine who can contact children, what they are shown, how content can be shared and what happens when abuse is detected or reported. These decisions have direct consequences for children’s safety.”

The Netherlands has a particular responsibility

The Netherlands is one of the world’s major digital infrastructure hubs and also plays a significant role in the hosting of child sexual abuse material. According to INHOPE’s 2025 data, 43% of suspected CSAM records identified through its international hotline network were hosted in the Netherlands. For material confirmed as illegal CSAM, the Dutch share was 36%, the highest of any country recorded.

This material depicts the sexual abuse and exploitation of real children. Every time an image or video remains available, is downloaded or is redistributed, the abuse can continue to affect the child depicted.

“The Netherlands cannot look at online child sexual exploitation as something happening somewhere else in the world,” Andeweg says. “Our digital infrastructure is part of the system in which this material is stored and distributed. That gives us both the opportunity and the responsibility to lead.”

The Dutch government has already taken important steps. Since 2024, the Authority for Online Terrorist and Child Sexual Abuse Material can require hosting companies to remove CSAM from their servers and impose substantial fines when companies fail to act. The government has itself recognised that the Netherlands’ extensive digital infrastructure gives the country a significant role in the global internet and therefore creates responsibilities for protecting children.

We want the Netherlands to build on this through a comprehensive approach that prevents abuse, strengthens detection and reporting, removes abusive material quickly and ensures children who experience sexual exploitation receive effective protection and specialised support.

From individual responsibility to system change

Terre des Hommes works internationally to tackle online sexual exploitation of children, including grooming, sexual extortion, the creation and distribution of child sexual abuse material and new forms of technology-facilitated abuse.

Our experience shows that children cannot be expected to carry responsibility for navigating digital environments that were never adequately designed around their safety.

System change means addressing the different parts of the environment that allow abuse to happen and continue. We are calling for:

• mandatory child rights impact assessments for technology companies;
• safety by design throughout the development of digital products;
• effective detection, reporting and rapid removal of CSAM;
• stronger safeguards around contact between adults and children and the sharing of sexual material;
• meaningful accountability and independent oversight of technology companies;
• specialised and accessible support for children who experience abuse;
• sufficient capacity for police, justice and child-protection services;
• digital education that helps children participate online safely;
• meaningful involvement of children in the policies and products that affect them.

These priorities are also included in Terre des Hommes Netherlands’ recommendations to Dutch political parties, which call for technology companies to identify and reduce risks of sexual exploitation, apply Safety by Design and contribute to a coordinated national system of prevention, protection, prosecution and care.

“We want to see a Dutch system that intervenes earlier,” Andeweg says. “Removing abusive material remains essential, but by that stage a child may already have been harmed. Prevention has to be built into platforms, legislation, enforcement and the wider child-protection system.”

A signal for Europe

The Meta settlement also comes at a crucial moment for European policy on children’s online safety.

We will continue to advocate for stronger European legislation to prevent and combat online child sexual abuse and exploitation. This includes clear responsibilities for technology companies to assess risks, prevent foreseeable harm, detect and report abuse and design services that are safe for children.

Terre des Hommes Netherlands has previously mobilised thousands of supporters in the Netherlands to call for stronger legislation protecting children online and continues to press Dutch and European decision-makers for a permanent and effective legal framework.

“The United States has shown that governments can demand significant changes from one of the world’s largest technology companies,” Andeweg says. “The Netherlands and Europe should bring the same level of ambition to preventing online sexual exploitation. We have the knowledge, the technology and the regulatory power. We now need to use them consistently to make children’s safety part of the system.”

About Terre des Hommes Netherlands

Terre des Hommes Netherlands works to prevent and stop the exploitation of children. We support children and communities, strengthen child-protection systems and work with governments, companies and civil society to address the structures that allow exploitation to continue.

Online sexual exploitation of children is a major focus of our work. Through programmes, research and advocacy, Terre des Hommes works with children and experts to improve prevention, protection, legislation and the design of safer digital environments.