Under Italian law, parents are constitutionally required to educate, guide and supervise their children. Even though this responsibility is historically rooted in an era free of legal concerns regarding the digitalisation, it is nowadays applied fully to digital environments as well. In fact, children’s daily lives increasingly unfold on social networks, messaging apps, gaming platforms and algorithm‑driven ecosystems. These spaces expose minors to risks that the legal system expects parents to understand and manage. Therefore, modern digital life is not to be considered separated from real life and, as a consequence, the law treats it accordingly.
- Constitutional and Civil Law Foundations of Digital Parenting
Article 30 of the Italian Constitution establishes that parents must support, raise and educate their children. This obligation organically applies to every context in which children grow and interact, including digital environments. In this respect, the Italian legal doctrine has repeatedly shown that parental responsibility needs to evolve alongside social and technological change. Hence, parental duties must be interpreted dynamically to effectively protect minors in contemporary society.
The Italian Civil Code reinforces this constitutional framework. Article 316 c.c. defines parental responsibility as a set of duties aimed at protecting the child’s wellbeing, while article 315‑bis c.c. recognises the child’s right to develop autonomy, which must be balanced with parental oversight. Italian courts have clarified that this balance applies equally to digital contexts, holding that parents must instruct minors to use digital and social networks properly because these environments can expose children to harmful content, manipulation and exploitation. (Bonati, 2025).
Furthermore, academic literature supports this interpretation as well. According to the reasonings of distinguished scholars, modern parental responsibility must be understood as a multidimensional duty that includes digital literacy, risk awareness and active engagement with children’s online experiences. This implies that parents must exercise digital supervision, risk prevention and education in digital citizenship as part of their legal obligations and roles (Bianchini, 2025).
- GDPR: Parents as Guardians of Children’s Data
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, EU Regulation 2016/679) places parents at the centre of the protection of minors’ personal data. Namely, article 8 GDPR requires parental consent for the processing of data of children under 16, although Italy has lowered this threshold to 14 through the Legislative Decree no. 101/2018.
This requirement means that parents must understand which platforms collect data from their children, how that data is used and whether the platform provides adequate safeguards. In this sense, parental consent is a legal act that expressly presupposes informed decision‑making. According to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB Guidelines 05/2020 on consent under Regulation 2016/679), parents must ensure that digital services provide clear information, age‑appropriate interfaces and effective privacy mechanisms.
Academic research and the guidelines offered by international organisations further confirm the importance of parental involvement in the digital context. It is argued that children’s data practices are shaped by complex socio‑technical systems and that parental guidance is essential to mitigate risks associated with profiling, behavioural advertising and algorithmic manipulation. This means that parents must regulate their children’s access to digital services by authorising or denying the use of platforms that do not meet appropriate standards of data protection. They must also educate their children about the meaning of data sharing, the risks associated with digital profiling and the long‑term consequences of leaving permanent traces online (Save The Children Italia, 2025).
The GDPR, therefore, transforms parents into de facto data guardians, responsible for ensuring that their children’s digital footprints are not exploited. This role requires active participation, continuous monitoring and a willingness to engage with the technical and legal aspects of digital services. It is an essential component of parental control and digital education.
- Digital Services Act: Safer Platforms, Stronger Parental Duties
The Digital Services Act (DSA, Regulation (EU) 2022/2065), creates a safer digital ecosystem but also implicitly strengthens parental responsibility.
It requires platforms to ban targeted advertising to minors, increase algorithmic transparency, implement effective content moderation, provide accessible reporting mechanisms and assess systemic risks, including risks to minors. These obligations make digital environments more secure, but they do not replace parental oversight. Instead, they provide parents with tools that enable more effective supervision.
Scholars such as Severi argue that the normative frameworks represent a shift toward a responsible digital governance, where platforms must mitigate risks but users, especially parents, must remain vigilant and informed (Severi, 2023). Therefore, parents must use the tools provided by the law to monitor their children’s online activities, report harmful content and understand how algorithms shape what their children see.
European law implements this concept by assuming that parents will engage in active digital monitoring rather than passive observation. It creates a shared responsibility between platforms and families but leaves the primary duty of education and supervision with the parents. This means that parents must develop digital literacy, understand platform governance and maintain an ongoing dialogue with their children about online risks.
- Educating Children in Digital Citizenship: A Legal Obligation
As discussed, Italian law does not merely require parents to control their children: it requires them to educate their children to use digital tools responsibly. This education involves teaching children to recognise manipulative or harmful content, understand cyberbullying and online harassment, develop respectful online behaviour and comprehend how algorithms influence visibility and engagement. It also requires parents to explain the principles of privacy, security and digital identity.
The importance of digital citizenship is thematised by various scholars. According to Mascheroni and Ólafsson, for instance, children’s online experiences are shaped by their ability to critically interpret digital content, and parental guidance is essential to developing these skills (Mascheroni & Ólafsson, 2014). This underlines once more how the issue of digital citizenship is now part of the educational duties imposed in Italy by Article 30 of the Constitution and grounded in family law. Parents must cultivate their children’s ability to navigate digital environments safely and critically, for this constitutes the essence of digital education as a legal duty.
- Balancing Control and Autonomy
The law recognises that children, especially adolescents, have a right to autonomy. Both national and international normative frameworks, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, emphasise the child’s evolving capacities. Parental control must, therefore, be proportionate to the child’s age and maturity, motivated by concrete risks, transparent rather than covert and educational rather than punitive.
Academic research supports this balanced approach by finding that excessive surveillance can undermine trust and hinder the development of digital resilience, while guided autonomy fosters safer and more responsible online behaviour (Perfetti, 2022). The legal standard is reasonable supervision, which evolves as the child grows. As a consequence, this balance is central to responsible digital parenting.
- Civil Liability for Children’s Online Conduct
Under Article 2048 c.c., parents are liable for damages caused by their minor children, including online misconduct such as defamation, cyberbullying, unauthorised sharing of images, copyright violations and harassment. Italian jurisprudence confirms this principle. The Court of Cassation held that parents must demonstrate adequate supervision to avoid liability for minors’ harmful acts online (Scia, 2021). It is argued that digital misconduct by minors raises complex issues of civil liability, but the underlying principle remains unchanged: parents must prove that they exercised appropriate vigilance and provided adequate education. Hence, civil liability is directly linked to the fulfilment of parental educational duties.
- Conclusion: Digital Life Is Real Life… and the Law Treats It That Way
Digital environments are part of children’s daily lives and therefore part of parental responsibility. Italian constitutional law and civil law as well as supranational sources such as the GDPR and the Digital Services Act all converge on one principle: parents must be present, informed and proactive in guiding their children online. The task is doubtlessly demanding, but it is also an opportunity to raise children who are conscious, critical and safe digital citizens.
