온라인 공간에서의 아동ㆍ청소년 보호 — 유럽연합과 영국의 법률적 대응을 중심으로 —

The proliferation of content that threatens the safety of children and young people online has intensified the debate about the responsibilities of digital platform operators. The European Union and the United Kingdom have recently begun to impose responsibilities and obligations on platforms to protect online users, especially children and young people. The EU has enacted the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, the Child Sexual Abuse Directive, the Child Sexual Abuse Proposal, and the Digital Services Act, while the UK is attempting to impose stronger regulation under the Online Safety Act. This study analyzes the laws and legislation to protect online users in the EU and the UK by examining the mandatory regulations to protect children and young people. The results show that both the EU and the UK have imposed obligations on platform service providers to operate their services through a systematic approach, such as establishing procedures for reporting illegal and harmful content, risk assessment and identification, age verification, and guarantees. However, while the EU's risk assessment obligations cover a broad range of risks arising from the design and functioning of platforms, the UK's Online Safety Act establishes categories of content harmful to children and young people and requires social platforms to prioritize the management of such content. In other words, the UK takes a systemic approach and prioritizes harmful content as a key determinant. This study examines the issues that arise from the obligations imposed on platforms to protect children and youth online and suggests legislative measures to protect children and youth in Korea.