Guyana sets sight on becoming CARICOM Leader in online child safety

Guyana is drawing inspiration from global leaders in digital child protection to craft a national online safety and ethical technology framework.

According to Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, Guyana will look to international partners as it seeks to become a trailblazer across the Caribbean with the implementation of new regulations.

The proposed framework sets a minimum social media age of 16, with limited parental consent allowing restricted access for children between 13 and 15 years old. Approved educational platforms would be exempted, ensuring the framework supports rather than hinders digital learning.

Teixeira pointed to the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act as among the international models informing Guyana’s approach, alongside Australia’s under-16 social media restrictions and age-based access laws in France and Denmark.

“We have Australia that has brought about under 16 social media restrictions, we have UK that is looking at online safety act, France and Denmark have put in age-based restrictions to access certain sites…China has come out with probably the most radical one – use modes to screen time controls,” Minister Teixeira said.

The push comes amid deepening global concern over the impact of unregulated digital access on children. Minister Teixeira said the stakes are high and warned that exposure to cyberbullying and harmful content is doing lasting damage to young people, not just socially, but developmentally.

“For young children this is not good for their cognitive development it impacts on their cognitive development,” she said.

Beyond legislation, the framework envisions platform monitoring tools and community outreach programmes to build awareness and reinforce protections at the community level. The minister said that cases of children being influenced to do harmful things to themselves and those around them has made it apparent that now, more than ever, the need for such a regulation is paramount. She also said that these consultations are only the beginning. 

With the consultations started and framework taking shape, Minister Teixeira expressed confidence that Guyana could soon be guiding its regional neighbours.

“We hope that we will be able to work with the CARICOM countries, show what we’ve done and be able to guide them to move more rapidly in this area,” she said.