Spain looks to ban social media for under-16s, joining others in Europe
BNN Bloomberg
Spain plans to ban social media access for children under 16, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Tuesday, in a move designed to shield young people from the harms of online content.
Sanchez chided the world’s biggest tech companies in a speech at a Dubai summit, saying they allow illegal content such as child sex abuse and nonconsensual sexualized deepfake images to proliferate on their platforms. He said that governments also needed to “stop turning a blind eye.”
“Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone,” Sanchez said. “We will no longer accept that.”
Spain joins a growing number of countries, including Australia and France, which have taken or are considering measures to restrict minors’ access to social media.
In January, France approved a bill banning social media for children under 15, paving the way for the measure to take effect at the start of the next school year in September. The bill would also ban the use of mobile phones in high schools.
Australia has started implementing the world’s first social media ban for under-16s, after its government passed a measure that holds platforms including TikTok, Twitch, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for failing to prevent children from having accounts.
