The Ministry of Justice and Public Security of Brazil, under the leadership of the State Secretariat for Digital Power, has officially launched a major change in the country ‘ s content rating system. The full integration of digital applications and online services into the evaluation system for the first time, in accordance with Decree No. 1048 of 2025, marks a milestone in the sale of children and adolescents on digital platforms in Brazil.
The bill entered into force on 15 October by the Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski. At the signing ceremony, he emphasized that this was “an important step towards the rapid development of technology to strengthen the protection of young children”. For the first time, the reform introduced an age classification “not recommended for use by children under 6 years of age”, extending the official rating to seven levels: full age, age 6, age 10, age 12, age 14, age 16 and age 18. The decree states that this is intended to provide families with forward-looking guidance to help parents make informed decisions about their children ‘ s entertainment and online content. Ricardo Levandovski stated that the reform was a central initiative of the Government to improve the child protection system: “The decree signed today represents significant progress. The new age classification reinforces the protection of early childhood, the most critical stage of human development.” He added that the measure followed international best practice and was designed to meet the challenge of a complex web environment: “The content rating policy is the most important level of protection challenge to warn a child of the suitability of family content for his or her guardianship”.
The revolutionary breakthrough of the new rule is that for the first time, the “digital interactive function” was classified as a rating determinant. This means that, in addition to traditional content, new types of risks, such as stranger risk, involuntary in-application purchases, algorithmic manipulation and dangerous interactions with artificially intelligent entities, will influence the rating of applications or games. The Acting Secretary for Digital Rights, Ricardo Horta, explained: “This update recognizes that most of the risks children face in cyberspace do not come from presentation, but from the functional design and interactive model of digital platforms.” “The main focus of previous research was on topics such as violence, pornography or drugs”, Ricardo Horta states, “But today research shows that most risks are triggered by interactive functions, such as adult contact with children in video games or algorithms that recommend terrorist content to them”. For the first time in Brazil, web games and websites were fully integrated into the age rating system, covering online/offline computer games, mobile software, social networks and interactive components that support the dissemination of content among users.
The regulations require product developers and the Ministry of Justice to give a clear or provisional rating according to the type of product. Relevant ratings must be clearly displayed in the application store, website and download interface to ensure consumer transparency. This represents a major shift in the approach to digital governance in Brazil, where the Ministry of Justice seeks to prevent emerging threats and achieve a balance between technological innovation, safety and security and family education by incorporating interactive and artificial intelligence into the rating system. As Brazil continues to advance its digital power infrastructure, the Government provides a model for countries to regulate their traditional content-appropriate cyberspace, allowing protection measures to evolve in tandem with technological developments.