The scale of the problem is particularly significant today, as minors have never before had such easy and widespread access to the internet and its resources, including social media and websites offering a variety of content. Children and young people regularly use the largest social media platforms and instant messaging services, even though these are not intended for this age group. Findings from the latest research by the Digital Citizenship Institute Foundation (ICO Foundation), the Centre for Information Technology (COI) and the NASK National Research Institute (NASK means Research and Academic Computer) indicate that children spend most of their time online engaging with entertainment content, which is immersive, time-consuming and displaces other forms of activity. By contrast, children devote only 1% of their time online to educational resources. Nearly 32% of minors have come into contact with websites and apps containing sexual content. Meanwhile, 60% of children under the age of 15 use social media.
The need to adapt the law to new challenges
In 2024–2025, the Minister of Digital Affairs drew up drafts of three significant legal acts intended to strengthen the protection of children against overly easy access to pornography, violent content and ‘pathostreams’.
In the draft Polish Digitization Strategy until 2035, mental health and the protection of citizens from harmful content were recognised for the first time in a document of this calibre as elements of national security. The growing psychosocial costs associated with functioning in the digital environment were also identified as key challenges. In turn, the draft Cybersecurity Strategy of the Republic of Poland for the years 2025–2029 (June 2025) includes, amongst its objectives and tasks, measures to address current threats in cyberspace, with particular emphasis on trends posing a risk to children and young people.
NIK pointed out that the existing Cybersecurity Strategy of the Republic of Poland for the years 2019–2024 did not provide for decisive measures commensurate with the identified threats and their significant impact on the development of young people, despite the fact that research findings had for years highlighted problems associated with the negative impact of online content accessible to children and young people, such as financial loss, crime, and a destructive impact on the mental health of minors.
The draft bill, drawn up in March 2024 to amend the Act on the Provision of Electronic Services and certain other acts (implementing the DSA Regulation on digital services in the European Union into national law), was passed by the Sejm in December 2025; however, it ultimately did not come into force. Consequently, for nearly two and a half years, Poland has lacked legislation ensuring the application of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), including the measures it provides for to protect minors from threats such as: access to harmful content, addictive user engagement mechanisms, cyberbullying and ad targeting. Currently, Poland is the only EU Member State that has not appointed a digital services coordinator (an interim coordinator was only appointed in May 2025, after the European Commission brought a case against Poland before the Court of Justice of the European Union). Consequently, since February 2024, Polish users of digital services have been deprived of the opportunity to use, amongst other things, the individual remedy of lodging a complaint against intermediary service providers.
In its submission to the Minister of Digital Affairs, the NIK emphasised that, given the lack of regulations restricting children’s and young people’s access to harmful, dangerous and pornographic content, there is an urgent need to take the necessary legislative measures to ensure the protection of this group of internet users. This is especially true given that, between 2020 and 2025, the Ministry failed to develop either recommendations or best practices for electronic service providers which, pending the entry into force of legislation, would set out the optimal course of action to significantly limit the negative impact of harmful content on children and young people.
Between 2020 and 2025, the Ministry of Digital Affairs drafted significant legal acts related to the safety of the youngest internet users. In the drafts from 2022 and 2024, the Minister made two attempts to introduce statutory regulations governing the protection of children against access to inappropriate and harmful content online. The aim of both bills was to introduce mechanisms restricting minors’ access to such content, given their stage of development – which involves the formation of sensitivity, critical judgement and knowledge of the surrounding world – as well as the negative impact such content may have on children’s emotional, cognitive and social development.
However, when drafting the bill on the protection of minors from harmful content (in 2024–2025), the fundamental issue of defining harmful content was overlooked, citing a lack of sufficient research in this area. There was a lack of the necessary analysis of the types of harmful and dangerous content, as well as their sources and the means of restricting access to them. Consequently, the second draft was intended to regulate access exclusively to pornography, without introducing any changes to access to harmful and dangerous content. On this occasion, the Ministry did not perform a documented and comprehensive review of existing national legislation with a view to strengthening the current tools for protecting minors from inappropriate content, and in some documents, the Ministry even referred to the results of studies or reports, for example from 2017, which – given the rapidly changing digital media environment and the associated threats (particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic) – did not reflect the current situation.
All hands on deck – effective cooperation between institutions is needed
During the period covered by the audit, the Minister for Digital Affairs twice took the initiative to cooperate with the Ministry of National Education by providing lesson plans and recommendations on teaching cybersecurity. Staff from the Ministry of Digital Affairs took part in the work or meetings of groups and teams during which issues associated with the first and second draft bills on the protection of minors were discussed, or which focused on the broadly defined safety of children in the so-called digital world. The cooperation undertaken by the Ministry of Digital Affairs in this respect was of an ad hoc nature, although the need for broad and active cooperation was also recognised in the draft strategic documents drawn up in 2024–2025.
Ultimately, however, between 2020 and 2025, no permanent and effective cooperation was established with the bodies responsible for the protection and education of the youngest children (e.g. the Minister of National Education, the Police, the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, the Commissioner for Civil Rights). The measures taken in this respect did not lead to the development and dissemination of solutions to support children’s safety in the digital world.
Education and prevention for parents too
Between 2020 and 2025, the Minister commissioned the NASK National Research Institute to implement tasks related to education and prevention concerning the safe use of digital technologies and so-called ‘digital hygiene’, including projects such as Digital Hygiene, Cyber Lessons and Safe Online. On the website www.gov.pl/web/cyfryzacja, the Ministry published announcements and educational content, and, at the Minister’s request, a series of radio programmes about cybersecurity and the safe use of the internet were broadcast (in October and November 2024). The Minister provided funding to NASK to support the operation of the Dyżurnet.pl team as a contact point for reporting illegal content online. NASK, as the operator of the Nationwide Education Network (Ogólnopolska Sieć Edukacyjna, OSE), in cooperation with the Minister, developed the mOchrona parental control app in 2021, enabling parents and legal guardians to set rules for the use of the internet and apps. Between 2020 and 2025, NASK, whilst performing public tasks co-funded by the Minister, prepared lesson plans and recommendations on teaching cybersecurity, which the Minister subsequently forwarded to the Minister of Education.
The Ministry of Digital Affairs did not have detailed information on the manner and scope of the implementation of the above tasks. No assessment was carried out to determine whether NASK’s activities, within the framework of tasks commissioned under grant agreements and within the scope set out in the Act on the Nationwide Education Network, had an impact, for example, on the level of awareness among children and young people, the amount of time spent by children and young people using the Internet, the number of reported cases of abuse and offences related to illegal content, or the number of children and young people who come into contact with pornography for the first time (and subsequently on a regular basis). No verification was carried out to determine whether the measures taken were optimal in view of the diverse needs of individual user groups, including parents and legal guardians. Furthermore, when commissioning tasks, no assessment was made of their effectiveness to date, nor of whether they addressed the problem comprehensively, for example, whether they covered all identified types of risks. In the NIK’s view, obtaining such knowledge was justified by the need to take previous experience into account in subsequent planned measures.
Measures taken following the audit
Following the completion of the audit by NIK, at its meeting on 2 June 2026, the Council of Ministers adopted a package of draft bills:
- on the prohibition of the use of mobile phones in public and non-public primary schools (excluding secondary schools);
- on the protection of minors from access to pornographic content on the Internet, submitted by the Minister of Digital Affairs. The draft, originally developed by the Ministry in 2024, was intended to provide broader protection (also covering various types of harmful content). However, in its current form, it restricts access to pornographic content. The provisions impose an obligation on digital service providers to effectively verify the age of users;
- on amendments to the Act on the Provision of Electronic Services (UC141). The provisions of the draft Act enable the application of the DSA Regulation and grant powers to, for example, the police, the public prosecutor’s office, the National Revenue Administration, the Border Guard and victims to apply for an order restricting access to illegal content. New obligations will affect service providers (blocking content based on a decision), whilst the President of the Office of Electronic Communications (Urząd Komunikacji Elektronicznej, UKE) will maintain a register of domains used to disseminate illegal content;
- on amendments to the Act on the Provision of Electronic Services (UC140), including the fulfilment of obligations arising from the DSA Regulation, e.g. by appointing the President of UKE as the national coordinator for digital services, the possibility of reporting illegal content, and the liability of digital platforms.
In addition, on 9 June 2026, the Council of Ministers adopted a resolution on the adoption of a strategy for the digitisation of the State, submitted by the Minister of Digital Affairs.
In turn, on 11 June 2026, the Sejm passed an amendment to the Criminal Code, introducing a new type of offence in Article 255b (the so-called ‘pathostreaming’ Act), which, following its adoption by the Senate on 25 June 2026, was subsequently forwarded to the President of the Republic of Poland.
NIK Recommendations
Despite the measures taken by the Ministry, the recommendations made by the NIK to the Minister of Digital Affairs following the audit remain fully valid. The NIK recommended: The NIK recommended:
- The urgent implementation of legal and organisational measures, based on a comprehensive analysis of the types of threats, their sources, and recognised methods of restricting minors’ access to harmful, dangerous and pornographic content online.
- The establishment of broad cooperation with key State entities responsible for the welfare of children and young people (including the Minister of National Education and other ministers, the police, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Ombudsman for Children’s Rights, the Commissioner for Civil Rights) with a view to ensuring that children and young people are protected from accessing harmful, dangerous and pornographic content online.
- Given the responsibility of parents and legal guardians for a child’s emotional, cognitive and social development, intensifying educational and information initiatives aimed at this group concerning the principles of safe Internet use by children.
- With respect to commissioned tasks related to education, prevention and digital hygiene, establish – in line with identified needs – indicators (e.g. quantitative and qualitative) that enable the verification of their effectiveness and a reliable assessment of expenditure in this area.
NIK joins the debate on children’s safety in the digital world
On 8 July 2026, at the NIK headquarters, participants in an expert panel discussed a common standard of responsibility for the safety of minors online. The discussions were set against the backdrop of issues identified by the NIK whilst conducting an audit on the protection of children and young people from harmful, dangerous and pornographic content on the Internet.
The meeting was chaired by Mariusz Haładyj, President of the Supreme Audit Office, and participants in the discussion included Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski, Minister for Supervision of Government Policy Implementation Maciej Berek, and Deputy Head of the President’s Chancellery Adam Andruszkiewicz, Under-Secretaries of State: Paulina Piechna-Więckiewicz from the Ministry of National Education and Sławomir Pałka from the Ministry of Justice; the Children’s Ombudsman, Monika Horna-Cieślak; and representatives of central authorities, the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Police Headquarters, the Office of Electronic Communications, the Commissioner for Civil Rights, as well as judges, police officers, lawyers, teachers, academics, representatives of NGOs and local government.
The first part attempted to draw up a list of essential measures aimed at the systematic protection of children and young people in the digital environment. Topics discussed included the question of when Poland might introduce an effective age verification mechanism to restrict minors’ access to pornographic content. Participants also spoke about the potential changes that the Polish Digitization Strategy, adopted in June, would bring.
In the second module, the discussion focused on developing optimal response strategies. This concerned a possible protocol for parents, teachers and the child, as well as crisis guidelines for situations where a child becomes a victim of or witnesses an online threat. Attention was drawn to the role of local government bodies as the authorities responsible for running schools.
The third part of the discussion was devoted to defining standards of digital wellbeing for children at school and at home – that is, guidelines for the safe and healthy use of technology, covering, for example, appropriate screen time, privacy protection, a balance between online and offline activities, and a culture of communication.
The discussion highlighted that the effective protection of minors requires a comprehensive approach, encompassing appropriate legislative measures, educational initiatives and close cooperation between public institutions, the education sector, parents and experts, with particular emphasis on the views of the young people themselves.
From the perspective of the Supreme Audit Office, there is no doubt that effectively responding to the challenges of the digital world is one of the main tasks of the State administration today.
Mariusz Haładyj, President of the Supreme Audit Office (NIK), proposed – and this was unanimously accepted – to continue this fruitful discussion by drawing up a joint set of recommendations for future action, reflecting a shared responsibility for the safety of minors online. The participants in the debate agreed to publish the jointly developed recommendations.
