Greece has followed through on initial plans to impose a social-media ban for kids under 15, with its parliament passing the measure into law, requiring social-media companies to enact age-verification measures starting Jan 1.
“It would have been very easy to do absolutely nothing today and wait for the perfect European law,” said governance and artificial intelligence minister. “But the challenge is here. Children are sinking into the internet every day, and I believe a responsible government must do what it is obliged to do.”
The law will impact major social platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn and other lesser-known platforms. Messaging apps like WhatsApp will remain available to children under 15 in the region.
Failing to implement proper age-verification methods will subject social media companies to fines under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA). Companies that don’t comply could face up to 6% of their global turnover.
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In addition, Greek parents are instructed to download Kids Wallet, an app that pairs to their child’s devices, blocking access to selected social media platforms.
“I talk to a lot of parents who say roughly the same thing: that their children are’t sleeping properly, get anxious easily, are on their phones a lot,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a TikTok video in April. “I also talk to a lot of you who say you’re tired of comparisons, of comments, of the constant pressure to be there all the time.”
At the time, Mitsotakis said that the country’s goal in enforcing a social media ban is to “push the European Union in this direction as well.”
Greece’s proposed ban will follow similar bans enforced by Indonesia, Austria, and Australia over the course of last year, which impacted platforms including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X and Reddit.
The U.K., Denmark, Slovenia, Germany, Spain and France have also drafted proposals regarding nationwide bans, while various states in the U.S. do the same. The European Commission has also introduced the EU Kids Act, which would ban children under 13 from accessing social apps across the region.
However, as more countries draft legislation, the effectiveness of social-media bans compared to stricter regulatory actions has yet to deliver proven impacts on teen health, with experts, politicians, tech leaders and consumers sharing opposing views on the matter.
For example, Victoria Nash, associate professor and senior policy fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, recently told CNN that banning teens from social media could alienate them from news and positive aspects of social apps, worrying that children will migrate to less regulated areas of the internet without proper protections.
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