Spain rides the global wave of teen social media bans

Spain and Greece on Tuesday proposed bans on social media use by teenagers, marking a hardening of attitudes by European nations against technology platforms they say are designed to be addictive and which can expose children to harmful content.

Spain wants to prohibit social media for those aged under 16, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday. Greece is close to announcing a similar ban for children under 15, a senior government source said.

They join a host of countries such as Britain and France considering tougher stances on social media, after Australia in December became the first country in the world to prohibit access to such platforms for children under 16.

Governments and regulators worldwide are looking at the impact of children's screen time on their development and mental wellbeing.

"Our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone ... We will no longer accept that," Sanchez said as he addressed the World Governments Summit in Dubai.

"We will protect them from the digital Wild West."

'Coalition of the digitally willing'

Sanchez said his government will also create a law to hold social media executives personally responsible for hate speech on their platforms.

Representatives of X, Google (part of Alphabet), TikTok, Snapchat and Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Spain's proposed measures.

Sanchez said Spain had joined five other European countries that he dubbed the "Coalition of the Digitally Willing” to coordinate and enforce cross-border regulation.

The coalition will hold its first meeting in the coming days, he said.

"We know that this is a battle that far exceeds the boundaries of any country," he said. Sanchez did not say which countries were in the group, and his office didn't immediately respond to a request for clarification.

Explosion of AI-generated content

Legislation to ban children under 15 from social media is passing through France's parliament. Britain is also considering similar measures but wants to see how the ban plays out in Australia before making any legislative change.

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The EU's Digital Services Act, which took full effect in early 2024, requires social media platforms to moderate content, while critics say this creates tensions between responsible governance and censorship concerns.

The recent rapid explosion of AI-generated content online has fueled the debate, highlighted this month by a public outcry over reports of Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot generating non-consensual sexual images, including of minors.

But some said the proposed measures will be a form of censoring criticism.

"The only thing they legislate for and the only measures they take are to cling to power and maintain the official narrative in the media," said Pepa Millan, parliamentary spokesperson of Spain's far-right Vox party, which uses social media to spread its message.

Hold social media executives accountabe

Sanchez said Spain will introduce a bill next week to hold social media executives accountable for illegal and hate-speech content, as well as to criminalise algorithmic manipulation and the amplification of illegal content.

Among the measures he proposed was a system to track hate speech online, while platforms would be required to introduce age-verification systems that "were not just check boxes", he said.

Sanchez also said prosecutors would explore ways to investigate possible legal infractions by Elon Musk's Grok, as well as by TikTok and Instagram, part of Meta.

His government would begin the process of passing legislation from as early as next week, he said.

The ban will be implemented as part of a change to an existing bill on digital protection for minors that is being debated in parliament, according to a government spokesperson, who didn’t provide further details.

About 82% of Spaniards said they believed children under 14 should be banned from social media inside and outside school, according to a 30-country Ipsos poll on education published last August. That was up from 73% in 2024.

“It's a good measure to encourage children to play with each other and not be on their mobile phones in parks, which I think is terrible, to be honest,” said Miguel Abad, a 19-year-old student in Madrid.

In Australia, social media companies collectively deactivated nearly 5 million accounts belonging to teenagers within weeks of its ban taking effect, the country's internet regulator said last month, suggesting the measure could have a sweeping impact.

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