Greece plans a total social media ban for children age 15 and under, in a move Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said is intended to push the European Union toward formalizing age limits across member countries. Under the proposal, platforms would be responsible for keeping children 15 and under off services that allow users to create profiles, interact with others and share content.
The government said the law would shift day-to-day enforcement to platforms through age re-verification, while leaving the state a more limited compliance role. Authorities would check whether companies meet the requirements and take action in cases of reported violations, including by escalating issues to the country where a social media company is based or to the EU’s executive arm.
Mitsotakis made his case in a video posted on social media, telling young people the ban is for their own good. He said parents and young people had told him that “endless hours” on social media platforms can induce stress, anxiety and sleeplessness, and he said he was prepared for some children to feel angry at the decision. “Now I’m certain that many young ones will be angry. If I was at your age, perhaps I’d feel the same way too. But our role, my role isn’t always to be pleasant,” Mitsotakis said.
He added: “If something makes us feel more anxious or worse, lesser than who we really are, then it’s perhaps best that we put a stop to it.” Mitsotakis said the government was not aiming to keep children away from technology, but to protect them from what he described as the “addictive design of certain platforms and their profit model” based on how long people spend looking at screens.
The Greek proposal, according to the reporting, would be expected to enter the legislative process this summer and take effect on the first day of the new year. As part of the same push, Mitsotakis urged European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to support what he called a “unified European framework” by the end of the year to complement national initiatives, and Greece said it wants an EU-wide approach rather than a patchwork of separate country rules.
Greece’s plan also follows France’s earlier decision to implement a social media ban for children 15 and under. Mitsotakis proposed an EU-wide ban for young people 15 and younger, a standardized age verification mechanism that platforms would repeat every two years, and a body for member states and the commission to assess incidents and impose penalties quickly when rules are broken.
Penalties described for noncompliance would include fines of up to 6% of a company’s global turnover, along with daily fines until companies comply or face restrictions on operations.
In his video message, Mitsotakis portrayed the initiative as a way to reduce harms he attributed to the design and business incentives of social media platforms, even as the policy places the burden of age verification on companies operating in Greece.