Children under 16 in Denmark will be banned from using social media without parental permission, the country’s prime minister has announced.
The Scandinavian country follows Australia and Norway in restricting sites like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram for those 15 and under.
Announcing the new law at the opening of the Danish Parliament yesterday [Tuesday], Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said phones and social media were ‘stealing our children’s childhood’.
Saying that many children now had difficulty reading and concentrating, she claimed ‘we have unleashed a monster’, adding that rates of anxiety and depression in young people had skyrocketed.
Some have called for more restrictions in the UK too, but experts told Metro they don’t think a blanket ban is the answer.
Andy Burrows, CEO of the Molly Rose Foundation, said: ‘Our research shows the scale of preventable harm which teenagers face on social media, but a ban would risk unintended consequences and leave young people on a cliff edge of harm when they reach 16 and start to use social media platforms.’
The charity pushes for better regulation of social media, following the death of Molly Russell, 14, in 2017 after she viewed ‘graphic’ self harm content online.
Mr Burrows said: ‘Instead of denying young people the benefits of our digital world and penalising them for the failures of tech firms, we need stronger evidence-based legislation to protect children from online risks.’
In the UK, the Online Safety Act which became law in 2023 means companies are now legally responsible for protecting children online.
This is the same law that means you now need to upload an ID to log into porn sites, to ensure that children are not getting around the age filter.
‘Parents are rising up’
But Daisy Greenwell, the founder of the grassroots campaign Smartphone Free Childhood, supported the Danish ban and said social media should be restricted for children – just like alcohol.
‘Denmark has just done what so many parents around the world are longing for – taken a stand,’ she told Metro.
‘This is real leadership: recognising that our children’s wellbeing must come before the profits of tech giants whose business model depends on stealing their time and attention.’
She said that while it might be difficult to implement, ‘we’ve reached the point where inaction is indefensible’.
The news from Denmark shows how ‘around the world, governments are waking up, and parents are rising up, demanding change’.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s speech to the Folketing
We have said yes to mobile phones in our children’s lives in the best sense of the word, so they can call home and communicate with their friends.
But the reality is that we have unleashed a monster. Never before have so many children and young people suffered from anxiety and depression. Many have difficulty reading and concentrating.
They see things on the screen that they shouldn’t. And a full 60% of 11 to 19-year-old boys don’t see a single friend physically in their free time during the course of a week. 60%. Do you think that number would be so high if it weren’t for the smartphone?
Mobile phones and social media are stealing our children’s childhood.
The government will therefore propose that we ban social media for children and young people under the age of 15, with the option for parents to give permission from the age of 13.
I hope that you here in the chamber will help tighten the law so that we take better care of our children here in Denmark.
Dr Fiona Scott, a lecturer on the digital lives of children at Sheffield University, said she did not think bans were the answer.
‘Social media bans obfuscate much larger and more complex issues and, if poorly implemented, could actively cause more harm than good,’ she told Metro.
One risk is that they could push children’s internet use ‘underground’, towards less regulated parts.
Or, they might not even work at all: ‘Evidence from France shows similar bans are easily circumvented, with almost half of users avoiding restrictions through VPNs.’
Like Andy Burrows, she said: ‘I also consider it dangerous to have a complete ‘watershed’ age of 15 – meaning that children who have not been exposed to social media (and therefore have not developed the critical skills they need to engage safely with social media) will suddenly and without appropriate support have access at the age of 15.’
Another ‘complex’ debate is about whether a ban would transgress children’s rights to play and participate, she added.
She said the cost of implementing a ban might be better invested in in addressing specific harms, holding the industry to account and helping children learn digital literacy skills.
When Australia announced a similar ban ot that proposed by Denmark last year, the Digital Child research centre raised concerns, saying ‘Our goal as a society ought to be about creating high-quality digital products and services for children, which can include social media that provides age-appropriate experiences.’
Countries where the age of digital consent is 13 include England, Wales, New Zealand, Italy, France and the Netherlands.
The United States has for decades required tech companies to seek parental consent to access data of children under 13, which is why social media use is banned for those under that age in most countries.
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