Greece to ban social media for children under 15 from next year

Athens, April 8 - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the country will ban children under 15 from accessing social media from January 1 next year.

"We have decided to take a difficult but necessary measure and ban children under 15 from accessing social media," he said in a video posted on TikTok on Wednesday.

The prime minister added that he would press the European Union to take the same measure.

Mitsotakis said he used social media to make the announcement so he could speak directly to teenagers and children. "I know some of you will be angry. Our goal is not to isolate you from technology, but to fight addiction to certain applications that harm your innocence and freedom," the prime minister said.

"The science is clear on this: when a child spends hours in front of a screen, their brain does not rest," he said.

Australia became the first country in December to ban children under 16 from using popular social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.

Australian legislation requires several social media platforms and websites to remove accounts of underage users. Companies face fines of up to A$49.5 million (approximately €28.44 million) if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply.

Indonesia began enforcing a ban on social media for users under 16 in March and has already issued notices to Google and Meta for failing to comply.

Austria announced last month that it would soon ban social media for children under 14, with the new law set to be introduced “this summer”. France, Spain, Denmark and Portugal are also looking to follow suit.

WT.24