Greece’s Prime Minister shared the information on Wednesday in a TikTok video
Main choice made for hundreds of thousands throughout the nation (Picture: Getty)
Greece has revealed it is going to herald a model new regulation subsequent yr that can have an effect on hundreds of thousands of individuals. The event follows Australia’s implementation of a comparable measure in December 2025, and now Greece is asking on the European Union to undertake its forthcoming ‘ban’.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis confirmed on Wednesday, 8 April 2026, that Greece will prohibit all these below 15 from utilizing social media. The coverage, which is able to take impact on 1 January 2027, is meant to safeguard kids’s psychological well-being and can be enforced no matter parental approval.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis pointed to “unambiguous” proof that extreme display screen time and social media algorithms are fuelling anxiousness and sleep issues amongst kids. Figures from the Greek Safer Web Centre in Athens reveal that 75 per cent of kids at present on social media in Greece are of major college age.
This comes because the UK Authorities has begun discussions about doubtlessly banning under-16s, whereas Eire and Denmark are weighing up comparable motion. Final month, the Home of Lords backed a movement to ban under-16s from accessing social media platforms within the UK.
In a TikTok video, Kyriakos Mitsotakis introduced: “We have now determined to go forward with a tough however needed measure: ban entry to social media for kids below 15 years previous. Greece is among the many first international locations on the planet to undertake such a measure.” The prime minister additional acknowledged his intention to stress the European Union into following go well with.
The Greek authorities intends to implement the ban through its current ‘Youngsters Pockets’ utility, which is already utilised to confirm ages for alcohol and tobacco purchases. This app can be deployed to filter and limit social media entry on the machine degree, stories the Mirror.
Reasonably than counting on social media platforms to manage themselves, Greece is taking a ‘source-based’ method. Mother and father can be obliged to activate the Youngsters Pockets app on all of their kids’s units to dam entry on the system degree. Greek officers are hopeful that this state-mandated device-level restriction will successfully fight circumvention strategies, equivalent to VPNs.
Greece joins a rising variety of nations introducing stringent age-based digital restrictions, amongst them Australia, which enforces an under-16 ban, and Indonesia. Following the announcement, Kyriakos Mitsotakis wrote to European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen, urging {that a} widespread EU-wide “Digital Age of Majority” be established at 15.
Whereas each Greece and Australia share the widespread purpose of safeguarding kids’s psychological well being, their strategies of enforcement differ significantly. Australia’s current under-16 ban locations the accountability squarely on platforms equivalent to TikTok, Instagram, and Fb to determine and take away underage accounts.
@kyriakosmitsotakis_
Αποφασίσαμε να προχωρήσουμε σε κάτι δύσκολο αλλά απαραίτητο: να απαγορεύσουμε την πρόσβαση στα social media σε παιδιά κάτω των 15 ετών.
♬ unique sound – Kyriakos Mitsotakis
Since its introduction in December 2025, Australia’s platform-based mannequin has encountered difficulties. The eSafety Commissioner lately flagged “vital considerations” relating to platforms that let kids to avoid checks or that supply insufficient reporting instruments for folks.
Australia’s ban impacts ten main “high-risk” social networks however largely exempts academic and messaging companies equivalent to Google Classroom and WhatsApp. The Greek proposal types a part of a wider framework that additionally limits minors’ entry to on-line playing, relationship apps, and tobacco and alcohol gross sales.
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In the meantime, the UK authorities is actively weighing up an outright ban on social media for under-16s by means of a high-profile nationwide session and parliamentary debate. A 3-month authorities session on “digital wellbeing” is at present underway, in search of opinions on restrictions equivalent to in a single day curfews and “app caps,” and is because of shut on 26 Could 2026.
In Parliament, the Home of Lords has twice dealt a blow to the federal government by inserting an modification into the Kids’s Wellbeing and Faculties Invoice that may impose a social media ban for these below 16. The Home of Commons beforehand voted down this measure in March 2026, with the invoice set to return to the Commons on 15 April, 2026.
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