Spain, Greece and France are pushing the European Commission to swiftly introduce an EU-wide age verification system and set a minimum age for social media access.
According to a policy document – obtained by Euractiv and designed to spark debate at a June ministerial – the Spanish, Greek, and French digital ministers argue that “poorly designed digital products and services” are spurring a range of health issues in minors that “are constantly exposed to trivial or comparative contents.”
The solution is to ramp up work on legislation that restricts access to dubious and addictive content for youngsters, while bolstering the ability of parents to curb usage of social media platforms and adult sites, the paper states.
The Commission is preparing an EU-wide age verification app for member states as a temporary solution until the EU Digital Wallets roll-out at the end of 2026. But EU countries want the app to go further and support parental control mechanisms, allow for age verification, and limit the use of certain applications for minors.
The three countries say it is also imperative to establish the “principle of a digital-age majority for online social networks”. This would be an age under which minors could not access social media.
France and Greece are both backing a social media ban for users under the age of 15 but Spain wants to leave the discussion open at an EU-level, a spokesperson from the Spanish representation told Euractiv.
In parallel, each country is working on its own solution. Spain and France are introducing mandatory age verification for adult sites, and Greece has launched a so-called “Kids Wallet” to verify users’ ages.
The Commission also presented draft guidelines last week to protect minors under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). The EU executive had said platforms should apply age assurance measures online to reduce children’s exposure to inappropriate and pornographic content.
The EU countries want their position to be taken into account when the Commission publishes the final version of these guidelines by the end of the summer.
The policy paper will be discussed with other EU digital ministers during the meeting on 5 June.
(jp)
