The new bill will come into force from January 2027.
The Greek parliament has voted in favour to ban social media for children under 15, as countries across the world attempt to shield children from the proven harms caused by unfettered access to the internet.
The new bill, which will come into force from January 2027, sets the minimum age to access social media platforms at 15, and places the burden to reliably verify a user’s age on its owners. Self-declared age is not considered enough under the new rules.
The law assumes “substantial corporate responsibility”, said the country’s digital ministry in a translated press statement today (23 October), giving companies that know the algorithms behind their platform the responsibility to implement child safety measures.
The upcoming Greek law is a part of the EU Digital Services Act, which regulates issues around online platform safety and transparency in the bloc.
“Exclusive reliance on parental supervision creates inequalities. Every child is entitled to a common level of protection, regardless of the time, knowledge and capabilities of their family,” said Greek Minister of State Akis Skertsos in the translated statement. Earlier this year, the country also introduced new rules to regular AI use in schools.
Greece is one of the seven countries alongside Ireland, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Italy and Spain cooperating with the European Commission on a pan European age verification solution, which promises to only transfer vital data – i.e. whether a user meets the age limit or not.
Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, in her State of the Union speech in September, also announced the EU Kids Act, a legislative proposal that intends to ban social media for children under 13. A pan EU law would also mean standardised access to social media across the bloc.
Once in force, Greece will become the first EU country to implement a social media ban. Earlier, in August, France’s top court blocked a proposed bill that would have banned social media for under-15s in the country starting September, citing potential freedom of expression issues.
Across the bloc, several other states, including Ireland, Spain and Germany, are mulling over restricting children’s access to social media after Australia became the first country to cut off minors from using major platforms last year.
In June, the UK said it would blanket-ban under-16s from a number of large user-to-user platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X. Earlier this year, the EU greenlit a provisional deal to ban AI systems that generate non-consensual sexually explicit and intimate content or child sexual abuse material.
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