France is working on a social media ban for under-15s, with the government aiming for restrictions to come into effect in September.
Most people are leaning toward establishing 16 years of age as the threshold for having social media accounts. Italians were the most supportive of that threshold, with 64 percent of respondents approving it, followed by Spain (55 percent), Belgium (54 percent), Poland (53 percent), France (48 percent) and Germany (39 percent).
Germany had the highest rate of people dismissing any age restrictions, at 7 percent of respondents.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has expressed tentative support for a ban for under-14s, saying earlier this year that he has “a lot of sympathy” for a proposal for such a measure from the Social Democratic Party. The German government has also commissioned an expert panel to issue a recommendation in the coming months.
The European Pulse was conducted by Cluster17 for POLITICO and beBartlet from March 13 to 21, surveying 6,698 adults online, with at least 1,000 respondents each from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain. Results for each country were weighted to be representative on dimensions including age, gender and geography.
Hanne Cokelaere contributed reporting.
