[event] Catalina Goanta: Miniconsumers

Speaker: Catalina Goanta is Associate Professor in Private Law and Technology and Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant HUMANads, focused on understanding the impact of content monetization on social media and on reinterpreting private law fairness in the context of platform governance. Between 2016–2021 she was Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law at Maastricht University, and during February 2018–February 2019, she was a Niels Stensen fellow and visited the University of St. Gallen (The Institute of Work and Employment) and Harvard University (The Berkman Center for Internet and Society).

Description: “The kids aren’t alright.” In the EU and beyond, policy attention has recently turned to children’s online activities. Many countries, from Australia to Brazil, are doubling down on platform regulation and social media bans, adopting new data protection and children’s rights frameworks to oversee these activities and protect minors from harms ranging from grooming to problematic or addictive use.

Yet this narrative is missing an important component: children are also consumers, and their online presence is based on transactions and contracts they may or may not have the legal capacity to enter into. This presentation explores the research gap surrounding children’s legal capacity: what minors are and are not permitted to engage with contractually in digital environments, and whether current legal standards should evolve in light of emerging scientific evidence.

Organizer: Thibault Schrepel, Associate Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (ALTI).

Format: Catalina Goanta will give a 30-minute talk, followed by a discussion moderated by Dr. Thibault Schrepel and a Q&A with the audience.