Dire state of children’s rights, mental health and families’ quality of life in Spain

Subject: Dire state of children’s rights, mental health and families’ quality of life in Spain

Spain has the highest child poverty rate in the EU. More than two million children and teenagers live in poverty – 28 % of all children and teenagers –

according to UNICEF’s 2024 State of Children in the European Union report.

The report also shows that more than 11 million children and young people in the EU suffer from a mental health condition, such as anxiety or depression, with a fifth of teenagers affected.

Another unsettling problem is that one in eight children aged 12 regularly receives unwanted sexual requests on the internet.

1. What is the Commission doing about this alarming state of affairs, and is it calling on national governments to act?

2. In view of the concerning figures placing Spain as the worst country for child poverty in the EU, will the Commission ask the Spanish Government to focus attention on advancing and improving children’s rights and families’ quality of life and ramp up investment?

3. Does the Commission see a need to strengthen mental health strategies with a larger budget and more resources?

Submitted:23.2.2024

Answer given by Vice-President Jourová on behalf of the European Commission (17 May 2024)

The Commission is aware of alarming situations of some children in Member States, including poverty, access to mental health services, violence and grooming of children online (1).

The Digital Services Act (2) requires platforms to ensure a high level of security and privacy for children. Very large platforms and search engines must analyse risks to their mental health and adopt effective mitigation measures.

Under the Better Internet for Kids Strategy (3), the EU co-funds Safer Internet Centres, including ‘Internet Segura for kids’ in Spain (4) that offer awareness raising, and helpline services.

The Commission proposal for a regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abus e (5) includes grooming in the prevention obligations and, if needed, detection obligations.

The Commission also adopted a recommendation on integrated child protection systems (6) to encourage national authorities to put in place systemic solutions to fight violence against children, online and offline.

The European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan (7) plans to reduce by 2030 the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion by at least 15 million, out of whom at least five million should be children. Spain committed to reduce the number of children at risk of poverty by at least 713 000 compared to 2019.

The 2022 Spanish action plan on implementation of the European Child Guarantee (8) includes 88 measures and information on the use of EU funding.

The 2023 Commission Communication on a comprehensive approach to mental health (9) lists 20 flagship initiatives and identifies EUR 1.23 million in funding, including for children.

1 ∙ ⸱ The number of reports on grooming in the EU more than quadrupled in 2023 compared to 2022, according to the National Centre for missing and exploited

children: https://www.missingkids.org/cybertiplinedata. 2 ∙ ⸱

Regulation 2022/2065 on a Single Market for Digital services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Service Act) L227/1. 3 ∙ ⸱ A Digital Decade for Children and Youth: the new European Strategy for a Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) COM/2022/212 final. 4 ∙ ⸱

Spanish Safer Internet Centre coordinated by ‘INCIBE’. 5 ∙ ⸱

Proposal for a REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse COM/2022/209 final (europa.eu). 6 ∙ ⸱

Commission Recommendation on developing and strengthening integrated child protection systems in the best interests of the child C(2024)2680 final. 7 ∙ ⸱ https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=1607&langId=en 8 ∙ ⸱

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv%3AOJ.L_.2021.223.01.0014.01.ENG&toc=OJ%3AL%3A2021%3A223%3ATOC 9 ∙ ⸱ https://health.ec.europa.eu/document/download/cef45b6d-a871-44d5-9d62-3cecc47eda89_en?filename=com_2023_298_1_act_en.pdf


















| | )In the EU4Health 2024 work programme (10), EUR 10 million are available to Member States and United Nations Children’s Fund to support mental health in the EU (11).

10 ∙ ⸱ https://health.ec.europa.eu/funding/eu4health-programme-2021-2027-vision-healthier-european-union_en

11 ∙ ⸱ https://health.ec.europa.eu/publications/2024-eu4health-work-programme_en