Recent guidelines from Brussels on protecting minors online have given the green light to EU countries to adopt stricter rules that restrict – or even ban – kids from accessing social media. We dive into the state of play across several countries leading the charge for tougher online child safeguarding.
Earlier this month, the EU’s executive presented new guidelines under the Digital Services Act (DSA), setting out its expectations for how platforms should protect children using their online services.
At the same time, the Commission has allowed member states to adopt a so-called “digital majority”, enabling them to go further by banning social media access for kids under a certain age, or by requiring parental consent.
Greece, Spain, and France jointly signed a declaration in June – later joined by Cyprus, Denmark, Slovenia – that urged the Commission to introduce an EU-wide digital majority and implement stronger age verification rules on platforms.
While the Commission rejected that idea, arguing that cultural differences make an EU standard inappropriate, it has allowed countries to set their own age thresholds for teens to access social media.
It has also developed a prototype age verification tool that member countries can use to customise their own national age-check apps to support various approaches to safeguarding kids online.
Below, we’ve rounded up the state of play across several EU countries that are adjusting their national laws to curb kids’ access to social media or taking other steps aimed at improving child safety online.
France
France has been the loudest proponent for banning social media access for minors, leading the EU-wide push to give member states the right to do so. President Emmanuel Macron has taken a personal interest in the issue.
Paris is working on implementing a ban as soon as the autumn session starts, according to a French government spokesperson, although the exact timeline will depend on national legislators.
Separately, France has already implemented strict age verification rules for pornographic websites, leading to platforms such as Pornhub blocking access to French users.
France is one of five countries participating in the pilot phase of the Commission’s prototype app. The government spokesperson told Euractiv that authorities are still deciding whether to use the “zero-knowledge proof” open-source technology developed by Google – which is integrated into the Commission’s prototype – or opt for a sovereign alternative.
Ireland
Starting this week, major video-sharing platforms established in Ireland – including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, Tumblr, Udemy, X and YouTube – are required under the country’s Online Safety Code to implement age checks and/or parental controls.
Under Irish law, platforms hosting adult material such as pornography or graphic violence must provide “effective” age assurance mechanisms and/or parental controls to ensure minors are not exposed to inappropriate content.
However, the law does not mandate a specific method of age verification. This mirrors the UK’s approach for age checks on pornographic platforms, , where companies may choose their verification method but are guided by a regulatory code outlining appropriate standards – explicitly stating that self-declaration is not valid.
Spain
Spain’s draft bill on protecting minors online aims to restrict social media access for children under 16. The proposed legislation would set 16 as the minimum age for creating a social media account.
For age verification, a government spokesperson said Spain has developed a digital wallet app – cartera digital beta – which aligns with the Commission’s prototype. By participating in the pilot, Spain also hopes to assess the app’s interoperability with national systems.
Greece
Greece has not proposed or supported a blanket social media ban for minors, according to a government spokesperson. However, the country is moving forward with a hybrid approach combining age verification and parental controls, following its earlier support for a Europe-wide digital majority age.
Greece has developed and launched its own age-check app, Kids Wallet. The downloadable app uses parents’ digital IDs to approve or deny their child’s request to access social media. The process involves parents validating the identity linked to the child’s profile on the digital ID app. Third-party applications may also retrieve the child’s age via API with parental consent, the spokesperson said.
Greece’s softer stance on teen social media access is backed by social media giant Meta, which is running its own EU-wide campaign on age verification. The Greek spokesperson told us that Meta supports its approach, which requires parental consent for teens to use social media platforms.
(nl, aw)
