The European Commission has confirmed that the implementation of Restrictions on access and use of social networks to children under 16 from EU countriesby approval of norms similar to those already approved by Australia.
This has been stated by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, which according to Bloomberg has explained that at the end of this year they will create a panel of experts to decide which approach to follow to make social networks safer for children in Europe. The president has commented that when she was young, society «He taught children that they should neither smoke, drink, nor see content for adults until they had a certain age »and that he believes that «It’s time for us to value doing the same with social networks«.
The president has also assured that the results of the norms approved in Australia will follow closely, which will take effect on the 10th of next December, and that will affect among others Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat, X and YouTube. In addition to protecting children under 16 years of harmful content, the authorities also want to prevent them from affecting functions that encourage them to spend more online.
The statements of Von der Leyen have occurred after receiving pressures from several European governments to implement stricter norms to social networks at the European Union level. Among them are France, Spain and Greece, who want mandatory restrictions to the use of social networks based on age.
In addition to Europe, there are more and more governments worldwide, among which is the aforementioned Australia, which are taking measures to control age for internet access, or social networks.
Last July, the United Kingdom made it mandatory that websites that have content for adults and pornography have to reinforce their age controls to ensure that its users are over 18 years of age, not without some controversy due to the level of affectation of different platforms and social networks. And in Ireland, since this summer video sharing platforms have to have age verification systems.
In the United States, the Supreme Court has opened the door to Member States to ask websites with pornographic content to start similar measures. Also with controversy for the platforms he has affected.
For example, the social network Bluesky has decided a few weeks ago prohibit access to users that connect to the social network From the state of Mississippi considering that it is very complex to check whether or not of legal age.
