And we will now proceed with the statements by the two co-chairs and we start with Doctor MELCIOR. You see.

Thank you very much Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

Firstly, let me thank the President for your trust.

It's an honor for me to have, together with Professor Jorg FEGERT

guided this group on thinking about protecting young people and adolescents online.

Professor Fert and myself, would like to express our gratitude to you for your constant interest and support. For our work.

The report and the recommendations which we are presenting today is supported by the expertise and the work of a number of specialists who are very competent and talented,

and we'd like to thank everyone who has taken part in the special group over the last months and who have shared their knowledge and their experience with us and all of those who we met outside of the group as well.

Mr President, as you have said yourself in Copenhagen a few months ago, we're all aware of the extraordinary opportunities that technology brings us,

but we also know that the potential dangers are just as great.

That's why, as co-authors of this special report, we're convinced that Europe needs to introduce protection measures to guarantee.

Europe to guarantee children and adolescents' safety in the digital world. Our conclusions are quite clear.

Children and adolescents need to be safe on social media and on other digital services that they use, whatever the platform.

Madam President, once again, I, I'd like to quote you.

We need to take account the rapid developments in the digital world, and that's why in our report, we talk about the universe of social media.

Social Media plus, and in the terminology of our report, we talk about the Social Media Plus world and we need to make sure that young people have safe access to the digital world so that they can seize the opportunities to learn,

create, and take part in the in the world as citizens in the digital world.

We know that online risks are not the same for all children, but every child.

From wherever they come and whatever their context and their living conditions need to have the same rights to grow up in a safe online world,

and that's why we're recommending that very clear rules should be put into place about how social media plus work.

And so, safety, safety by design is the principle.

So, making digital spaces safe is the key measure for protecting.

Young people who might be at risk, because at the moment they're confronted with social media and other digital platforms which do not protect them.

At the moment we're talking about addictive functionality, for example,

er doom scrolling or automatically playing videos, dark patterns.

Rabbit holes with doubtful content and unsolicited contact by other young people or sometimes also by adults.

We need clear applicable rules about how social media plus work to protect young people and adolescents.

These rules need to be sufficiently flexible to protect young people against new functionalities which could emerge in the future and pose hazards.

So security by design needs to be linked to age verification measures which are effective but which respect users' privacy as well.

Also, it needs to be accompanied by digital literacy classes for young people, for their parents and teachers.

Parents need also to be given tools to supervise and guide young people.

When they access digital services at various ages and their needs and their questions are not, the same,

if you compare a young person and an adolescent, but, parents still have a role to play.

The digital role is, the digital world is rich but should never replace real life,

and all young people need alternatives to digital activities which are high quality and accessible.

So that they can build relationships with other young people, they can play,

have sporting and cultural artistic activities and travel and explore the world.

So,

We need to protect against excessive use because the damages can be major and we need to reduce those if we want young people to have an equal chance for the future.