France, Spain, and Greece are reportedly pushing for EU-wide rules to protect children from harmful online material.
According to a Bloomberg report on Friday, France, Spain, and Greece are pushing for mandatory age checks on social media sites like Meta’s Facebook and Elon Musk’s X.
The proposed regulations would require all devices connected to the internet to have age verification technology. According to a document cited by Bloomberg, the digital services ministers of the three EU member states are coordinating the effort before a meeting with their EU counterparts on June 6.
The three countries reportedly claim that the “lack of proper and widespread age-verification mechanisms” makes it difficult to enforce age limits effectively. The report states that they intend to use the EU’s economic influence, with its 450 million consumers, to pressure tech companies to implement strong verification systems.
French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed his support on Tuesday for mandatory age verification for teenagers signing up for social media platforms, stating that online networks have contributed to suffering and mental health problems among young people.
“We must protect our children,” he told TF1, adding that age verification on social networks should be mandatory.
According to Bloomberg, the European Commission and several EU members are already working on pilot projects to improve parental controls and age verification. However, their efforts are being hampered by regulatory differences among EU countries and the ease with which users can access social networks from outside the EU.
“One real ID for every social network user — that’s the only way to actually guarantee minors don’t access inappropriate content,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said earlier this year.
Australia has already prohibited social media access for users under the age of 16. In Spain, a similar measure has been included in a legislative bill, but it is awaiting parliamentary review and does not yet have a firm timeline.
The Norwegian government has announced plans to set a minimum age of 15 for social media access. However, there is currently no specific timeline or concrete implementation strategy in place.
Earlier this year, 200 schools in France began testing a “digital break” that prevents students up to the age of 15 from using smartphones during school hours.
In Russia, similar regulations took effect in September, prohibiting students from using cellphones in schools, except in emergencies involving a risk to health or life.