Greece Plans Ban on Social Media for Minors Under 15 – A Step Toward “Digital Adulthood”

Greece is preparing to follow 1 of Europe’s strictest measures to support minors online, pursuing the pb of countries specified arsenic Australia and respective U.S. states. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that his authorities is acceptable to found a “digital property of consent,” mounting the minimum property for entree to societal media platforms astatine 15.

The inaugural is portion of a broader effort that volition besides restrict online gambling, the acquisition of intoxicant and tobacco, and entree to dating applications for underage users.

The planetary context

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has already backed the thought of mounting a minimum property for societal media access, raising the contented astatine the UN General Assembly successful New York.

Australia has legislated a prohibition connected societal media accounts for anyone nether 16, done the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, which volition instrumentality effect successful December 2025. The instrumentality requires platforms to instrumentality “reasonable steps” to artifact underage sign-ups. Meanwhile, Florida and different U.S. states are moving successful the aforesaid direction, portion China has agelong enforced strict restrictions connected minors’ entree to societal media, online gaming, and mobile use.

The Greek program and its tools

The government’s connection includes 2 main instruments:

• parco.gov.gr platform: linked to the nationalist integer registry, it volition let parents to verify a child’s property erstwhile buying their archetypal mobile phone. It volition besides supply parental power functions for societal media use.
• Kids Wallet app: designed to artifact minors from societal media, gambling sites, online purchases of intoxicant and cigarettes, and dating platforms. It volition relation crossed phones, tablets, and computers.

However, the usage of Kids Wallet will not beryllium mandatory, raising questions astir whether parents could look penalties if their children proceed to entree societal media contempt the ban.

Challenges of enforcement

Despite these planned tools, acquisition shows that minors often find ways to bypass restrictions:

• logging successful done parents’ oregon friends’ accounts,
• entering mendacious commencement dates during registration,
• using VPNs oregon anonymity tools,
• creating deceptive profiles with misleading images.

At the aforesaid time, societal media platforms are reluctant to suffer their youngest users – often referred to successful media presumption arsenic the “dynamic audience.” Teenagers not lone marque up a ample idiosyncratic basal but besides walk important clip online and are highly impressionable. While platforms officially endorse property restrictions, successful signifier they often question originative ways to clasp and pull younger audiences.

What comes next

The Greek authorities aims to present the authorities successful October, with contiguous effect. Its success, however, volition beryllium heavy connected however property verification is implemented and however efficaciously platforms cooperate.

The cardinal question remains: can exertion genuinely outpace the ingenuity of teenagers – and the strategies of societal media companies?