France, Spain and Greece have come up with a joint idea to establish a threshold of “digital adulthood”. The main goal is to protect teenagers and children from dangerous online content.
As Euronews notes, representatives of the three countries believe that the algorithms used by social networks expose the youngest children to addictive content, which can lead to increased anxiety or depression. They also argue that overexposure can limit the development of certain skills and impair cognitive abilities.
Note that Australia is the first country in the world to already ban social media for children under the age of 16. The European Union also has certain legal restrictions, which are contained in the Digital Services Regulation (DSA). It is aimed at combating illegal content such as hate speech, terrorism and child pornography. This law has been in place for almost two years for very large platforms and search engines and a little over a year for other platforms.
The introduction of new restrictive measures is opposed by representatives of online platforms. They believe that at this stage there are already enough tools to verify the age of account holders and protect children from unwanted content.
Nevertheless, European institutions have started debates on the introduction of “digital adulthood”. It is too early to judge how they will end up.
