After Australia, more countries are working to prohibit social networks for minors: these are their proposals

After the entry into force last December of Australian law prohibiting access to social networks for those under 16 years of agethere are several countries that are already moving forward to adopt it, such as France, United Kingdom, Spain o to European Union, although each one with their own proposals.

Minors spend an average of time on social networks more than an hour a daywith the Spaniards being the ones who spend the most time, with an average of 1 hour and 17 minutes specifically, according to a recent report by Qustodio.

TikTok continues to be the social network preferred by minors, who invest an average of 2 hours and 12 minutes daily. The reason for TikTok’s success is none other than its ‘vertical video feed short durationdesigned to engage users with content of interest to them.

Precisely, more and more networks and platforms are seeking to imitate TikTok’s short-duration vertical video model. However, the consumption of this type of formats can cause effects in minors, such as overstimulation, excess dopaminefragmented attention or sleep disturbanceas indicated by Qustodio.

Unicef ​​has also shown its concern about the early access of minors to social networks, and that is that 78.3% of children in the last years of Primary School (10 and 11 years old) already have a presence on some network.

The organization warns that 6% of adolescents could present a problematic usage pattern after an “excessive and poorly controlled connection”, which leads to a constant need to connect, difficulty reducing online time and the presence of “negative emotional symptoms” when the networks are not accessed.

Another of the problems that Unicef ​​warns about is the ‘sexting’ o contact with strangers through social networks, which can lead to risks linked to consent, manipulation, exposure to sexual risks o criminal behavior. Along these lines, 5.7% of minors under 16 years of age have indicated that they have received a sexual proposition from an adult on the Internet.

Given this series of risks, 46% of parents consider that the minimum age to access social networks should increase to 16 years, according to Qustodio. It is precisely the age that the Australian Government took as a reference when prohibiting access to social networks for minors last December.

REGULATIONS BY COUNTRIES

Australia became in December the first country in the world to prohibit the use of social networks for those under 16 years after the law proposed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese came into force to improve the psychological and social well-being of minors.

This ban affects at least ten social media and streaming platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, X, Reddit, Twitch and Kick, which must take “reasonable measures” to prevent minors under 16 from having an active account.

If they do not comply with the regulations, these companies could face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (more than 29 million euros). To avoid these sanctions, Meta has already removed almost 550,000 accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Threads.

With this regulation, Australia puts the focus on companies as responsible for ensuring that the minimum age of 16 years is met.

The French National Assembly gave the green light this Monday prohibition of access to social networks for minors under 15 years of age. Specifically, a bill has been voted that contemplates the prohibition of access to social networks for those under 15 years of age and the promotion of products or services that may harm their physical or mental health on social networks designed for them.

However, this measure must still be debated in the French Senate in the middle of next February. If it is finally approved there, it could come into force as early as September, becoming the first European country to adapt this measure.

The French panorama is very similar to that of United Kingdomwhich on January 21 voted in favor of the ban on social networks for those under 16 years of age in the House of Lords through the amendment to the Child Welfare and Schools Bill.

The British proposal still needs to be debated in the House of Commons, and if it goes ahead, it will be processed pending its entry into force.

Furthermore, the United Kingdom already implemented in July age verification systems to service providers and platforms on the Internet within the framework of the Online Safety Law, in order to restrict access to pornographic content.

In the case of Spainlast September Congress gave green light for the organic law for the protection of minors in digital environmentswhich contemplates the increasing the minimum age for registration on social networks to 16 years (currently it is 14 years old), as well as forcing Internet access terminal manufacturers to establish free protection measures for minors, such as a parental control system.

In this line, the Government of Denmark announced in November a agreement to implement a minimum age of 15 years for the use of social networksalthough it was specified which platforms would be affected. However, the regulations contemplate that parents authorize its use for those over 13 years of age.

The Danish regulation seeks that with this restriction children “have more time to play and develop before having profiles on social networks.” The Ministry of Digitalization has pointed out the effects that they can have on minors: “They suffer sleep disturbances, loss of concentration, and experience increasing pressure due to digital relationships in which adults are not always present.”

Furthermore, last November, the European Parliament proposed to restrict access to social networks for those over 16 years of agealthough allowing its use for over 13 years old with consent of their parents.

The MEPs point out the lack of involvement of large platforms when taking “appropriate” measures to protect minors. Therefore, they also urge a rapid and effective application of the Digital Services Law and to prohibit harmful practices, such as addictive designs. If these measures are not complied with, the MEPs appeal to demand personal responsibility from senior officials of the companies.

In parallel, the European Commission It has a pilot project underway with several countries, including Spain, to have a platform capable of verifying the real age of the user who accesses the networks.

SOCIAL NETWORKS POLICY

Instagram establishes that the minimum age for creating an account is 14 yearsand launched ‘Teen Accounts’ in November 2024, with more advanced built-in protection functions by default, which limit issues such as who can contact them and the content they see on the platform.

These accounts are also present in Facebookin which the registration age worldwide is 13 yearsexcept in Spain, South Korea and Quebec (Canada), where it rises to 14 years.

TikTok allows users to create an account over 13 years oldalthough it clarifies that a user must be over 16 years old for their videos to be shown in the ‘For you’ feed or to use the messages. Additionally, they use more restrictive privacy settings and filter out any inappropriate content.

X (formerly Twitter) also sets in 13 years the minimum age to use the platform and warns that it will expel anyone who does not meet this requirement. Minor accounts are private by defaultbeing able to accept or reject followers or private messages.