Spain Announces Social Media Ban Plans for Under-16s
Several European countries, including Spain, Greece, France, Greece and the U.K., are all considering social media bans for minors.
Written by Jackie Leavitt (Editor at Large)
Reviewed by Aleksander Hougen (Chief Editor)
Last Updated:
On Tuesday, Feb. 3, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced at the World Governments Summit in Dubai that Spain would be pursuing a social media ban for anyone under 16 and also putting responsibility on social media platforms for implementing effective age verification.
“Our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone … We will no longer accept that. We will protect them from the digital Wild West.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, at the World Governments Summit in Dubai
Spain’s measure still needs to pass into law with parliamentary approval, and it will be added as an amendment to a draft law currently being debated in Congress that aims to protect minors online, according to El Pais sources at the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Administration.
Prime Minister Sánchez said that the law would criminalize manipulating social media algorithms to amplify illegal content, and it would also create a tracking system to evaluate “how digital platforms fuel division and amplify hate,” though he didn’t add further details. Another measure includes investigating and potentially prosecuting crimes committed by Grok, TikTok and Instagram.
Elon Musk, the owner of Grok and X, unleashed a tirade of Tweets to the announcement, calling Sánchez a “tyrant and traitor to the people of Spain,” a “true fascist totalitarian,” and also “dirty Sánchez.”
According to Prime Minister Sánchez, Spain will be joining a “Coalition of the Digitally Willing” consisting of five other European countries, though he didn’t name them in his announcement.
However, France, Denmark, Austria, the U.K. are all considering underage social media bans, following Australia’s ban on under-16s using social media that went into effect in December last year. Additionally, Reuters reported from Greek officials that Greece is also planning to pursue an under-15s ban on social media.
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