European Countries Inch Closer Towards Social Media Ban

Image by UNICEF Australia.

After Australia moved to implement its social media ban on children under 16, many European countries are looking to enact similar restrictions within their own populations. In late January, France’s lower house approved a bill banning social media access for children under 15, and Spain has been pushing for the investigation of tech giants such as Meta and Tiktok over AI-generated content. Italy has also introduced a bill pushing for social media restrictions, and Greece, Portugal, Germany, and Austria are all in talks to potentially follow suit. 

Many leaders have cited the numerous pitfalls of social media on children’s mental health, including the onset of anxiety and depression, and their exposure to violence, pornography, cyberbullying and other harmful content. Social media has been well known to have numerous negative side effects, and many country leaders are worried that these platforms are detrimental to children’s developing brains and cognitive function. Political leaders are introducing possible restrictions in the hopes that they can combat social media’s adverse effects and protect minors. 

Australia’s ban is centered around not allowing anyone under 16 to create or keep social media accounts, and the addition of various Identification checks to confirm the user’s age. Whether or not European countries will implement these exact restrictions are unknown, but the Australian model is still being referenced. Despite Australia’s ban, many kids are still finding ways to circumvent the restrictions by using VPNs, or through the help of their parents. Despite this, Australia hopes that its policy change is the beginning of changing social and cultural norms surrounding social media use. 

If European countries fully implement bans themselves, it is unknown as to whether it will actually work amongst the youth. Since many children in Australia are able to get around the ban, it cannot be said definitively that their model works. If Europe wants to add restrictions, they must be able to find and troubleshoot the areas of Australia’s ban that aren’t working well. It could be argued that rather than just cutting kids of a certain age off from social media, it would be more productive to take preventative measures around the technological and social space. Many of the children who are relieved at the social media ban are those who have faced some type of cyberbullying or have been exposed to hateful communities. It could be more helpful for these children if there was more conversation around content moderation to make the online space safer.