The Greek government will prohibit social media access for children under the age of 15 starting in January. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the policy on Wednesday, citing the negative impact of digital platforms on youth mental health.
Mitsotakis said the decision targets the "addictive design" of modern applications. He pointed to rising rates of anxiety and sleep deprivation among adolescents as primary drivers for the new regulation.
A broader European push
In a video message posted to TikTok, the Prime Minister acknowledged the difficulty of the change. He stated that the goal is not to alienate young people from technology, but to protect them from business models designed to capture attention at the expense of their well-being.
"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," Mitsotakis said. "That has to stop somewhere."
Greece is also pushing for a synchronized approach across the European Union. Mitsotakis has written to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urging her to adopt a common framework. His proposal includes mandatory age verification across all member states and a requirement for platforms to re-verify user ages every six months.
Several other nations have moved toward similar restrictions. Australia passed a law in December requiring platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat to remove accounts for users under 16 or face significant financial penalties. France, Austria, and Spain are currently pursuing their own legislative curbs, while Ireland and Denmark are reviewing potential measures.
Tech companies maintain that these blanket bans are difficult to enforce and could inadvertently isolate vulnerable teenagers. Reddit, for instance, is currently challenging the Australian law in court. Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, has argued that teenage mental health is too complex to link to a single application.
Government officials in Athens plan to release the full details of the regulatory framework later this week. The move follows a landmark trial in the United States earlier this year, where a jury found Meta and Google liable for intentionally designing platforms that caused mental health harm to a young user.
