Another country plans to ban social media access for children under 16

Tengrinews.kz – Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has stated that Madrid will ban children under 16 from accessing social networks, citing DW.

The head of government spoke on Tuesday, 3 February, at the plenary session of the World Government Summit in Dubai.

“The platforms will be obliged to introduce effective age-verification systems — not just as a box-ticking exercise, but real barriers that work,” he stressed.

Spain will protect minors from the “digital Wild West,” Sanchez promised.

According to Politico, the ban is expected to be approved by Spain’s Council of Ministers next week. The new amendment will directly prohibit users under 16 from registering on digital platforms.

The innovation is part of a broader package of measures that Sánchez believes are necessary to “regain control” over the digital space.

“Governments must stop turning a blind eye to the spread of toxic content,” he said.

This refers, in particular, to holding social media executives legally accountable for illegal content, as well as to stricter monitoring of disinformation, hate speech and child pornography.

Concerns that immersion in smartphones and social networks negatively affects children’s mental health also exist in other countries. For example, Denmark earlier announced plans to ban children under 15 from using social media. At the European level, the European Commission recently announced it will examine whether platforms such as YouTube and Snapchat comply with the requirements of the Digital Services Act (DSA) on the protection of minors.

Paris is pushing for the introduction of a similar ban as early as September. In Portugal, the ruling centre-right Social Democratic Party on 2 February introduced a bill that would require children under 16 to obtain parental consent to access social networks.

Australia became the first country in the world to ban the use of social networks by persons under 16. The law, passed by the country’s parliament in November 2024, came into force at midnight on 10 December 2025.