{"id":519664,"date":"2026-04-08T14:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/519664\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T14:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T14:23:09","slug":"greece-to-ban-social-media-for-under-15s-from-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/519664\/","title":{"rendered":"Greece to ban social media for under-15s from next year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UK government has launched a consultation<\/a> on whether to implement a ban for under-16s, while Ireland and Denmark are considering similar measures.<\/p>\n

Social media companies argue that blanket bans will be ineffective, difficult to enforce and could isolate vulnerable teenagers. Reddit is challenging Australia’s law in court.<\/p>\n

In a video message posted on TikTok on Wednesday, Mitsotakis said: “Many young people tell me they feel exhausted from comparisons, from comments, from the pressure to always be online.”<\/p>\n

He said he had spoken with parents who said their children do not sleep well, are anxious and are always on their phones.<\/p>\n

Calling the planned restriction “difficult but necessary”, he said the government’s goal was not to distance young people from technology which “can be a source of inspiration, knowledge and creativity”.<\/p>\n

“But the addictive design of certain applications, and a business model based on capturing your attention – on how long you stay in front of a screen – takes away your innocence and your freedom. That has to stop somewhere.”<\/p>\n

Further details of the regulatory framework to enforce the ban will be outlined later on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Mitsotakis also said Greece would push for action at a European level. In a letter addressed to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, he called for a common EU framework to “complement and reinforce the necessary national initiatives for the protection of minors”.<\/p>\n

His proposals include mandatory age verification for under-15s across all platforms, a pan-European ban for that age group, and a requirement for platforms to re-check users’ ages every six months.<\/p>\n

The debate over children’s use of social media has intensified in recent months, triggered by increasing evidence of the damaging effect it can have on mental health.<\/p>\n

In March, Meta and YouTube were found liable in a landmark US trial over a woman’s childhood addiction<\/a> to social media.<\/p>\n

Jurors concluded that Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and Google, the parent company of YouTube, had intentionally built addictive social media platforms that harmed her mental health.<\/p>\n

Meta and Google said they disagreed with the verdict and intended to appeal.<\/p>\n

Meta said: “Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UK government has launched a consultation on whether to implement a ban for under-16s, while Ireland and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-519664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}