Greece prime minister announces plan to ban social media for children under 15 News
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Greece prime minister announces plan to ban social media for children under 15

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Wednesday that starting January 1, 2027, Greece plans to ban access to social media for children under the age of 15.

The proposed ban is expected to be legislated in Greek Parliament through mid-2026. Leaders have made no public announcement as to which online platforms will be effected. Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou said enforcement will likely involve fining noncompliant platforms, similar to frameworks found in the EU Digital Services Act.

A February poll showed that 80 percent surveyed Greeks approved of a ban. This is not the first measure Greece has taken to limit social media access, as the government has previously prohibited mobile phones in schools and set up parental control platforms to limit teenagers’ screen time.

In 2025, Australia implemented similar sweeping social media prohibition, banning anyone under 16 from keeping or making accounts on social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, X, Facebook and other. Groups like UNICEF Australia argued that the risks of social media, such as cyberbullying, harmful content, and online predators, outweigh the positives. Other counties such as Britain, Malaysia, France, Denmark and Poland have either considered a ban or continue to legislate one.

Greece has justified the ban through similar reasoning as other nations–to protect the mental health and well-being of children and teens. In a video shared on social media, the prime minister spoke directly to children, saying, “I also talk to a lot of you who say you’re tired of comparisons, of comments, of the constant pressure to be there all the time.”

However, support is often needed from social media platforms themselves. In Australia, non-profit OpenAge Initiative has launched a new range of age verification tools called AgeKeys, which are the first interoperable, privacy-preserving global age signals created to aid companies in weeding out underage accounts. On Meta’s recent update to the Australian government, the company said it removed access to almost 550,000 accounts belonging to people believed to be under 16 years-old.

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