The European Union (EU) has announced plans to ban social media for under-13s – a move welcomed by child safety campaigners.
The proposals were unveiled on Wednesday by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission.
“Many perceive the power of big tech as overwhelming and impossible to roll back. I disagree,” she said. “[This] is not about our minors accessing social media. It is about when and how we allow social media to access minors.”
The EU will deploy its own verification scheme and demand that app stores, not platforms, police the gates. Children aged 13 to 15 would only be able to access platforms for an hour a day via ‘mini accounts’ set up through a parent or guardian’s social media account.
“Teens will find it much harder to circumvent these bans,” Patrick Grady, head of European tech at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, told Positive News. “The EU will succeed where Australia has so far failed.”
Not everyone is convinced by social media bans. Critics have raised concerns around privacy, warning that everyone will have to submit personal information to access platforms.
Many welcomed the move, however. “The days of tech exceptionalism and their systematic exploitation of children for profit are numbered,” said Leanda Barrington-Leach, executive director at campaign group 5Rights.
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