This week, when Australia started implementing a social media ban on children below 16 years old (a world-first), Denmark is considering doing the same and highly restricting social media access by youth.
According to the reports, the Danish government has recently announced that it has gained an agreement between three ruling parties and two opposition parties in parliament to prohibit the usage of social media by any person under 15 years old. This would be the most far-reaching action taken so far by a country in the European Union regarding the restrictions on the use of social media by teens and children.
The schemes of the Danish government might be made legal no later than mid-26. According to the plans proposed, reported by the local media, some parents would have the right to allow their children to use social media from the age of 13, but the ministry has not fully presented the plans.
Most social media networks already prohibit children under the age of 13 from creating an account, and a piece of EU legislation mandates Big Tech to implement systems to ensure children are not exposed to risk and inappropriate content on the internet. However, authorities and specialists believe that such limitations do not necessarily work.
Danish officials have indicated that, despite the prohibitions, approximately 98 percent of children under 13 years old in Denmark have profiles on at least one social media site, and nearly half of children under the age of 10 years do.
The digital affairs minister, Caroline Stage, who declared the proposed ban last month, noted that the measure is yet to be consulted upon and read in a number of readings in the parliament before it is legalized, possibly by mid to end next year.
“We have played freely in the playing rooms of our children for far too many years at the hands of social media platforms. There have not been any boundaries”, that is what Stage said in an interview with The Associated Press last month.
“In the evening, when we enter the city, there are bouncers who are checking the age of the youth to ensure that no underage individuals are allowed into a party that they are not supposed to be in. We do not have bouncers in the digital world, and we surely require them.”
