Greek Parliament approves social media ban for children under 15

The bill was backed only by the ruling New Democracy party, while major opposition parties voted against it or abstained. Parliamentary debates lasted more than 16 hours.

Under the legislation, platforms will be required to introduce reliable age-verification mechanisms. These may include the government applications Kids Wallet and Gov.gr Wallet, or other solutions that comply with national and European legislation. Platforms will receive only confirmation of whether a user has reached the age of 15, without access to their name, date of birth, or other personal data.

Companies that fail to comply with the requirements will face fines of up to 6% of their global annual turnover, in line with the provisions of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced plans to introduce the ban in April this year. Authorities say the measure is necessary to protect children's mental health, arguing that endless scrolling deprives minors of sleep, concentration and time to socialize with their peers, while platform algorithms are designed to be addictive.

Greece is becoming one of the first European Union countries to introduce such a restriction. Australia previously implemented a similar ban for children under 16. In France, a similar law was rejected by the Constitutional Council. Athens is also calling for a common EU-wide approach to protecting minors in the digital environment.

Initially, the ban will cover platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, with the list potentially expanding in the future. Parents will not be able to grant permission for their children to use social media, and existing accounts belonging to children under 15 will not be exempt from the restriction.

Earlier, it was reported that Türkiye had introduced new regulations prohibiting social media platforms from providing services to children under the age of 15.