Greece Enacts Social Media Ban For Kids Below 15
The regulation is now official and can go into impact on January 1, 2027.
Greece’s parliament has passed a social media ban for youths beneath 15 after its prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis first introduced the measure earlier this year. The invoice, which Mitsotakis known as “tough however obligatory,” is among the many first to be imposed within the European Union to date and can go into impact on January 1, 2027. The new regulation covers platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X, and mandates that such providers apply proportionate and dependable age-verification strategies.
“It would have been very straightforward to do completely nothing at this time and await the proper European regulation. But the problem is right here. Children are sinking into the web day by day, and I imagine a accountable authorities should do what it’s obliged to do,” said Greece’s digital governance and AI minister, Dimitris Papastergiou.
Failure to adjust to the act will result in fines beneath the EU’s Digital Services Act. Parents would additionally have to obtain apps backed by the state known as Kids Wallet or Gov.gr which can be paired to their kid’s machine and block entry. Those apps, Papastergiou mentioned, are designed to guard privateness and reduce information collected by utilizing “age tokens” that may affirm somebody’s age whereas minimizing the disclosure of their private information.
The laws was opposed by Greece’s minority events, so Mitsotakis used his majority authorities to cross the invoice. The nation beforehand barred cellphones in faculties in 2024, and opinion polls show that the brand new social media ban for youngsters is broadly supported by Greece’s grownup inhabitants.
Mitsotakis beforehand mentioned that his authorities’s “aim is to push the European Union on this course as effectively.” The European Commission not too long ago launched the EU Kids Act to just do that, however that regulation stipulates an outright ban just for youngsters beneath 13. Australia was the primary nation to enact a full social media ban for youths, however the age verification has proved challenging to implement.
