Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Wednesday that access to social media would be banned for children under 15, effective from January 1, 2027. He declared the message through a video post on TikTok. “We have decided to go ahead with a difficult but necessary measure: ban access to social media for children under 15 years old,” he said.
“Greece is among the first countries in the world to adopt such a measure,” the prime minister said, and added that he would exert pressure on the European Union to follow the same step. Mitsotakis also said that he chose social media to announce in order to speak directly to teenagers and children.
“I know that some of you are going to be angry…. Our aim is not to keep you away from technology but to combat addiction to certain applications that harm your innocence and your freedom.” “Science is clear: when a child is in front of screens for hours, their brain does not rest,” he said.
Australia became the first country to ban
In December, Australia became the first country to mandate that platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat remove accounts belonging to users under 16 or face steep penalties. Indonesia followed by enforcing a similar restriction in March, and has already issued notices to Google and Meta for not complying with the rules.
Austria said last month that it plans to ban social media use for children up to 14, with legislation expected as early as this summer. Spain and Denmark have also signalled plans to introduce a minimum age requirement for social media use.
