EU to consider banning social media for children under 16

The European Commission plans to explore the possibility of introducing age restrictions for social media use for teenagers under 16, following the example of Australia, where such rules will come into force in December. This was reported by Bloomberg, writes UNN.

Details

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that by the end of the year, she would establish a group of experts to develop an approach to enhance the safety of social media for children in Europe.

In my time, we as a society taught our children that they cannot smoke, drink, or watch adult content until a certain age. I believe it is time for us to consider doing the same for social media.

Von der Leyen's statement came after pressure from European governments to introduce stricter rules on social media in the EU.

As the publication reported in May, France, Spain, and Greece are pushing for mandatory age restrictions for social media users.

Examples from other countries

Governments worldwide are increasingly introducing online age verification to protect children from harmful content. For example, in July, the UK mandated pornography websites to verify that users are 18 years old.

In the US, the Supreme Court allowed individual states to adopt similar rules, and in Ireland, mandatory age verification for video-sharing services was introduced this summer.

From December 10, new rules will also come into force in Australia. They will apply to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube, Snapchat, and other popular platforms. According to the government's plan, these restrictions are intended to protect children from algorithms and features that force them to spend more and more time online and expose them to dangerous content.

Pornhub ceased operations in France due to age verification law18.07.25, 10:33 • 7527 views