Overview
- Greece, which unveiled the plan Thursday, will bar social‑media accounts for users 15 and under starting January 1, 2027, with legislation due in mid‑2026.
- Platforms will have to reverify the ages of all users in Greece and face penalties under the EU’s Digital Services Act, including fines up to 6% of global turnover for non‑compliance.
- Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis framed the move as a child‑safety step tied to anxiety, sleep loss and what he called addictive platform design, and he addressed students directly in a video message.
- Mitsotakis asked the European Commission to adopt a unified framework that sets a digital age of majority at 15 and requires standardized verification with periodic rechecks.
- In India, Andhra Pradesh began drafting a state law to restrict access for under‑13s and is studying ‘age token’ checks through DigiLocker, while other governments push or enforce similar rules, including Indonesia’s under‑16 crackdown that now targets YouTube’s compliance.