Greece is restricting access to social media for its youngest citizens. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that children under 15 will lose access to social media platforms starting January next year, making Greece the newest European nation to draw a hard line between kids and algorithm-driven feeds.
Key Takeaways:
- Greece will enforce a social media ban for under-15s from January next year, citing rising anxiety, sleep disorders, and addictive platform design among young users.
- Prime Minister Mitsotakis is pushing for a unified EU response, including mandatory age verification and a pan-European ban for children under 15.
- Social media companies maintain that blanket bans are unenforceable and counterproductive, with Reddit actively challenging similar Australian legislation in court.
The announcement came via a TikTok video — an ironic choice of medium, given the message. In the clip, Mitsotakis laid out his rationale in direct terms, pointing to growing mental health concerns among Greek youth.
“Many young people tell me they feel exhausted from comparisons, from comments, from the pressure to always be online.”
The Prime Minister added that conversations with parents reinforced his concerns. Children were losing sleep, battling anxiety, and staying glued to their phones. He described the planned restriction as “difficult but necessary.”
Mitsotakis was careful to separate technology itself from the specific problem. The government, he said, has no interest in cutting young people off from digital tools that serve as genuine sources of inspiration and knowledge.
“But 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. That has to stop somewhere.”
Greece is not acting in isolation. Australia set the pace in December by becoming the first country to require platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat to remove accounts belonging to users under 16 or face heavy fines. France, Austria, and Spain have followed with their own legislative efforts. The UK government is currently consulting on a potential ban for under-16s, and Ireland and Denmark are weighing similar steps.
Beyond national action, Mitsotakis wants Brussels to step in. In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, he called for a unified EU framework to back up individual member states. His specific proposals include mandatory age verification for users under 15 across every platform, a continent-wide ban for that age group, and a requirement that platforms re-verify user ages every six months.
The tech industry, predictably, is not on board. Social media companies argue that sweeping bans will prove impossible to enforce and could cut off vulnerable teenagers from online communities that provide support. Reddit has taken the dispute to court, challenging Australia’s law directly.
The broader battle over children and social media has picked up speed in recent months. A landmark US trial in March found Meta and YouTube liable for a woman’s childhood addiction to their platforms. The jury concluded that both companies had deliberately built features designed to keep users hooked — and that the design had damaged her mental health.
Both companies have signaled they intend to appeal. Meta issued a statement pushing back against the verdict. “Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app.”
The regulatory details of Greece’s ban are expected to be published shortly. Whether Athens can convince the rest of Europe to adopt a common approach remains an open question — but the momentum is clearly building.
Written by Vytautas Valinskas