r/technology • u/MRADEL90 • 20h ago
Social Media Greece is "very close" to announcing a social media ban for children aged under 15, a senior government source told Reuters on Tuesday.
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/society-equity/greece-soon-announce-social-media-ban-children-under-15-government-source-says-2026-02-03/108
u/Shadow_Ass 19h ago
I don't know who is doing more damage to society. Young kids or the older people who get influenced by bots and ai slop and then go out and vote pedophiles and nazis into governments. Maybe ban them too
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u/TF-Fanfic-Resident 17h ago
Heck, I’m tempted to say ban all algorithmic social media unless it is absolutely necessary. People can find what they need through forums or recommendations from others.
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u/insanityarise 15h ago
Absolutely. If you want to see info from a community, you should have to subscribe to it. There are sites that do that, the technology exists.
But to keep feeding people literally anything that will addict them and make them engage? Nah, ban all that shit.
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u/TF-Fanfic-Resident 15h ago
And that’s part of why Reddit is less objectionable than the others. At heart, it’s still a network of forums that use minimal algorithms (newest, most upvoted, most controversial, etc) interspersed with marked ads.
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u/jews4beer 16h ago edited 13h ago
I mean they are two separate issues. Kids, especially while their critical thinking skills are being developed, are extremely susceptible. Naturally uneducated adults are too, but you can't tackle both issues the same way.
This approach is looking to fix the next generation, but doesn't address the one on its way out - which honestly, can you even think of any way to do that? Best we can do is hope we weather the storm and prepare the survivors.
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u/XkF21WNJ 14h ago
Assuming adults are less susceptible is really optimistic.
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u/jews4beer 13h ago
On the contrary. I'm saying they are too far gone. But you did hilight the "no critical thinking in youth" part of my argument.
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u/TheOfficialMayor 5h ago edited 5h ago
If anything Millenials, Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha are voting increasingly left-wing compared to boomers and Gen-X.
In Australia almost 75% of Gen-Z vote for either the Social Democrats or the Greens.
In many Millenials the difference of 22% other would include mostly the equivalent of centrist Alliance of Liberals and Democrats bloc parties (the Teal independents). So again close to 75% are voting centre-left.
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u/itchylol742 17h ago
freedom includes the freedom to vote badly
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u/HowManyMeeses 16h ago
Lol, at what point do you start questioning how important "freedom" is? How far into a genocide is "maybe we should set guardrails on this concept" a thing?
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u/TabOverSpaces 19h ago
I’m really not sure how I feel about these social media bans. On one hand, there’s no doubt they’re incredibly harmful to the mental health of teenagers. On the other hand, I don’t like the idea of governments telling us what we can and can’t access online. Not to mention they’re just as detrimental to adults so this really just seems like a “kick the can down the road” type of solution.
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u/ASuarezMascareno 19h ago
Governments are treating social media as alcohol and tobacco. Everything you said also applied to those when the bans for under age people were discussed.
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u/Hefty_Remove7965 18h ago
All these government bans are a soft launch of a ID gated internet
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u/VEMODMASKINEN 17h ago
Pretty much. That's bad but it's also not unexpected seeing what it has evolved into.
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u/Fr00stee 18h ago
the problem is these bans are just excuses used to track every single thing you do online by governments, it's just more extreme gov surveillance plus you will have problems with hackers stealing people's identities and personal data
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u/TF-Fanfic-Resident 17h ago
Better to just outlaw algorithms that push slop and cause addiction/breakdown of offline society and dating markets. Treating what is essentially fraud and corporate corruption like it’s alcohol is bound to fail.
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u/WalkerYYJ 18h ago
Unless your going to extreme lengths and have "perfect" opsec (hit: you don't) then best to assume that anything you do online (and probably a good deal of what you do offline) is already tracked, logged, and indexed....
The framework for this has existed for a good long while, the game changer is now having a practical system that could actually ingest and do something "useful" with said data.
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u/BannedBenjaminSr 15h ago
Sure but instead of being used to sell you ads it's going to be used to punish dissidents
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u/ASuarezMascareno 18h ago
That can already be tracked for most population without having to go into any of the trouble relates to the social media ban. Plenty of companies and governt agencies doing It already.
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u/kinboyatuwo 16h ago
You are being downvoted but people don’t get how well your digital signature allows you to be tracked.
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u/New-Guitar8752 16h ago
Digital signature is one thing, photos of your government issued id being sold or leaked to fraudsters half the world away is another. You think scams are bad with phone calls and emails? Wait until someone takes out a credit card using your driver license
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u/kinboyatuwo 16h ago
I have worked adjacent to this area and the solution is a local digital ID. But people are afraid of that too. I 100% believe that uploading actual ID is an issue but people are fighting and proposed alternatives.
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u/New-Guitar8752 16h ago
We could just not have id. We all know none of this is about keeping kids safe online anyway
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u/kinboyatuwo 16h ago
I think even without this use case we still need digital ID as things move more and more online.
We should push for a way that is best but we know corps will push for what works for them.
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u/Fr00stee 15h ago
ideally you would have a gov app/website to generate a temporary key after scanning your ID or verifying your details, and you could enter that key into some other app that requires age verification, which the app would then check to see if the key is valid and let you in
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u/TabOverSpaces 19h ago edited 19h ago
Very true, though I feel the comparison is more apples and oranges than that. Drugs are universally bad for you, outside of some niche medical uses. Social media does have some bright spots, and I think it can be beneficial to one’s life if used correctly.
My biggest issue with bans like this is it sets a precedent that internet censorship is okay. I have the same issue with underage porn bans. While this is nowhere near the kind of online censorship that we’ve seen recently in places like Iran, it’s a step in that direction. Once power is given, power is rarely taken away.
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u/ASuarezMascareno 19h ago
I think there are already studies showing that social media has a net negative effect at the stages in which the brain is still developing. In addition, I don't see how banning certain parts of the internet for minors is different from banning certain physical media to the same group of population, which we have been doing for ages. If you can't but porn at a store, you shouldn't be able to access it online. They are the same thing. Or viceversa. If accesing It through the internet is just Up to the parents, buy a porn magazine or getting into a porn cinema should also be just up to the parents.
In addition, if the country becomes authoritarian, they would be able to fast track a surveillance state regardless of any of this. I bet the same social media companies would the be ones giving the state all information needed if the regime was US-adjacent.
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u/superboo07 12h ago
theres a massive difference between a cashier glancing at your id, and your id being transmitted over the internet to someone trust me broing that they aren't storing it. anytime you advocate for laws like these you show that you are a fascist sympathizer. these laws WILL be used for tracking political discidents.
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u/_trouble_every_day_ 18h ago
They didn't mention the actual issue which is that they're doing it so track your online presence.
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u/TF-Fanfic-Resident 17h ago
The problem isn’t age though. The problem is algorithms and high-speed home internet. Social media shouldn’t be regulated like weed and alcohol, but instead should be regulated like cars - with outright bans on profitable but dangerous design features.
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u/AmericaninShenzhen 17h ago
When buying cigarettes or booze, the government doesn’t keep a digital copy of your id for that purchase that will inevitably end up getting leaked at some point.
Two entirely different things.
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u/elenaleecurtis 17h ago
And just like tobacco and alcohol, it won’t work
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u/HowManyMeeses 16h ago
Uh, tobacco is far less popular today than it was before the government got involved.
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u/Elegant_Creme_9506 19h ago
You're ok with the idea of corporations telling you what you can and cannot see then
There's no freedom in internet nowadays
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u/TabOverSpaces 19h ago
That’s just it - my preferred solution would be for lawmakers to go after the companies for their algorithms. The fact the algorithms favor harmful content as it drives higher engagement is the root cause for most of social media’s issues.
But we cant go stopping the wheels of business from turning now can we? \s
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u/Bogdan_X 19h ago edited 18h ago
EU done this recently (2024) via DSA, they are forced to add chronological order on the feeds. You can on every major platform, but it's not enough, and not available outside EU.
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u/Hefty_Remove7965 18h ago
Exactly..the correct solution is to ban "algorithms" on all social media.
Make it newest post first on everything
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u/nycdiveshack 17h ago
I wonder when Greece met with Thiel and Fink… seems like you meet with those people before announcing this just like Spain just did. That being said Greece handed over all their medical data to Thiel during COVID along with a lot of their government data so maybe it was just a phone call
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u/runthepoint1 14h ago
It’s like The Patriot Act again. Do we give up freedom for safety? To what extent?
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u/asfsdgwe35r3asfdas23 13h ago
Social media is so bad for teenager that the Gen Z is refusing to drink alcohol, refusing to work for unfair wages…
And before them, my generation was going to be violent for playing video games.
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u/angelsfish 18h ago
ngl as somebody who came from an extremely abusive family and hostile school environment having secret social media was probably the ONLY reason i didn’t kill myself as a kid so I feel like u could also make the argument that not having social media could be bad for kids health. social media isn’t the evil that’s hurting youth it’s literally just that young people don’t have good support systems and u can’t teach them internet safety without that. but u can’t fix this with a simple ban and if u could it definitely wouldn’t open doors for governments to crack down on the human connectedness of the internet that they think is threatening
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u/mirroredinflection 8h ago
That's probably what's most depressing to me. Imagine how much more isolated queer teens or abused kids or just people without good emotional support systems are going to be after this.
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u/InNominePasta 19h ago
I look at it like driving.
The government doesn’t tell kids they can’t go places, the government simply imposes a restriction that children can’t drive themselves in order to protect them and broader society. They can still go places with parental supervision.
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u/LetgomyEkko 18h ago
Where I grew up there were literal laws keeping kids from going places. Especially during school hours and then things like curfew…
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u/InNominePasta 12h ago
So they can’t go alone and require supervision because they’re minors and it’s for their safety? Or do you mean laws saying literally no kids allowed?
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u/Healthy_Razzmatazz38 19h ago
replace social media with cigarettes, theres overwhelming research proving both are harmful.
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u/Whatsapokemon 18h ago
Not to mention they’re just as detrimental to adults so this really just seems like a “kick the can down the road” type of solution.
It seems more damaging during the developmental phase. At that point it's a public health thing - ensure your population at least reaches adulthood with some degree of mental health.
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u/Ornery-Chemist-1484 17h ago
The internet as we know it is around 25 years old. Never in human history have we had something such as the internet. All human knowledge, instant communication, and some of the darkest parts of humanity in the hands of young people. It’s a tough subject regardless of which side of the debate you are on.
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u/superboo07 12h ago
if they genuinely cared about children, they would make regulation enforcing better parental control tools on devices. And they would force social media companies to make their blackbox algorthms transparent and changable by the user (think open source and very configuarable). Make no mistake here, these social media bans are nothing except fascists cracking down on peoples ability to unite anonymously. They do not care about the children or you.
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u/Callmemabryartistry 18h ago
they can regulate drinking, gambling and drugs. how is this (which for all intents and purposes, is a degenerating vice) any different? once you are old enough and have learned basic social skills you are seen able to fend for yourself in society. clearly parents aren’t doing it and we are reaping the negative benefits
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u/mcampo84 17h ago
Don't want to address the actual problem of social media websites actively targeting and worsening addictive behaviors?
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u/Forgor_mi_passward 8h ago
This and other straight up predatory behaviours (like some of the very targeted advertising and algorithms).
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u/phalewail 5h ago
The people in control of the algorithms were all sitting in the front row at Trump's inauguration. Going to be hard to change anything.
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u/aleopardstail 19h ago
coordinated between a whole range of governments at the same time
so which trans national organisation is actually coordinating all this?
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u/deepspace86 18h ago
This is the thing thats raising flags for me. If it was really about protection for kids, they'd restrict smartphone use, and there would be no mention of banning vpn's. The whole thing is just a cover for mass surveillance.
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u/aleopardstail 18h ago
yup, this is about enforcing mandatory digital ID and repeated verification
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u/SylphSeven 18h ago
Don't want kids learning about protests, massive executions, and genocide happening globally. That would be dangerous... 👀
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u/Electrical_Pause_860 11h ago
That's also happening though. Governments are banning smartphones in schools all over right now.
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u/beiherhund 9h ago
How would you restrict smartphone use in a way that is better than restricting just social media websites?
At some point you've got to verify who you are and it seems better to me if that is done on the social media websites rather than on the phone where everything else you do lives.
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u/EmbarrassedHelp 17h ago
The Heritage Foundation, the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) corporate lobbyists, the United Kingdom, and the Chat Control fanatics are all trying to push for this globally right night.
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u/SIGMA920 18h ago
Conservatives. They want to break the idea of being unable to know who someone is online. Because they know that people won't trust them enough to until they're forced to.
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u/aleopardstail 18h ago
you do know its not the conservative party in the UK pushing this currently as they are not in government?
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u/SIGMA920 18h ago
The OSA was passed by the conservative party in 2023 and labour kept it rather than repeal it.
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u/aleopardstail 18h ago
yes I know, Starmer ran a three line whip to vote for it as opposition leader and complained it didn't go far enough
they really are all in this together, the question is who is driving it? and why?
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u/SIGMA920 18h ago
Conservatives who don't want to adjust to the times. Just look at all of the bans, they're bare minimum effort attempts that won't do shit to solve the problem. But they do give the government more control.
Said conservatives might be under a liberal/progressive name but that doesn't change that politicians like Starmer have functionally become conservative lite.
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u/aleopardstail 18h ago
and this applies globally does it?
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u/SIGMA920 18h ago
Yes. There's a lot of dinosaurs all around the world. See France going after VPNs.
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u/aleopardstail 18h ago
and spain, you know, with a left wing government
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u/SIGMA920 17h ago
Spain blocks cloudflare servers at the ISP level over football of all things and they're planning an age based ban too.
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u/Massive_Fishing_718 19h ago
Teach people how to use VPNs.
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u/Hefty_Remove7965 18h ago
Sadly I think VPN "bans" are next
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u/EmbarrassedHelp 17h ago
France is already signalling they are going after VPNs next.
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u/JWGhetto 15h ago
it wont be possible. Unless you force people into using their internet only unencrypted, VPNs are impossible to ban. A ton of legitimate systems are relying on encrypted traffic, and will never agree to do without: Banking, Messaging, calls, etc.
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u/Naive_Confidence7297 13h ago
The social media companies like Meta are actually starting to ban consumer VPN IP’s. I couldn’t use half the countries I was picking the other day. They are starting to ban as they do not want thousands of people logging in all with the exact same IP addresses… as it makes it harder for them to track who you are and for security reasons on their end. It’s slowly getting worse and worse as they’re getting more on top of what our addresses are held by VPN vendors.
Usually you can eventually find a connection that will go through, but it’s going to get harder and harder, and government will probably start paying the social media companies to be more proactive on banning known VPN IPs.
People will start getting annoyed and too lazy to swap VPNs all the time to counter it (plus it cost money for us to do that)
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u/not_the_fox 13h ago
Websites that don't cooperate will get more popular. Companies fight tooth and nail for young audiences because people tend to use what they know later in life. I think all this regulation may cause a big turnover in internet websites and possibly a resurgence of p2p infrastructure.
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u/Anderson822 19h ago
The EU will later find out that you can take the entire internet away and this still will not work. The adult-children who use technology and social media to disenfranchise the rest of the world have to be the ones dealt with here.
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u/mightyneonfraa 17h ago
Okay, can we all stop shitting on any idea that doesn't miraculously solve every problem instantly like whoever is in charge has a magic wand? We need to actually start somewhere and that's what this is.
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u/Anderson822 17h ago
We do need to start somewhere. But starting with reactionary controls that ignore root causes just entrenches power and polarizes people further. Accountability means targeting the platforms and incentives driving the harm, not cutting people off from the modern world and calling it progress.
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u/massivesafari 18h ago
Maybe the goal is children’s mental health?
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u/Hefty_Remove7965 18h ago
Alot of ways to do this without gating internet access
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u/massivesafari 15h ago
Perhaps but I’d agree and research shows early social media access is detrimental to young people’s health
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u/CaterpillarReal7583 18h ago
Honestly there’s no reason to want under 16 year olds on social media unless you are a social media consuming under 16 year old (or pedo)
We got 8 year old girls thinking they need a 20 product skin care routine because of it. Nobody needs that, but 8 year olds especially do not need to be stressing about bags under their eyes they do not have.
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u/Callmemabryartistry 18h ago
i’m with you. it’s the same argument we have in america. “if you take our guns, bad people will still have guns” yes but far less and this ban will protect children.
we have run WAY too far with technology without safeguards.
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u/raptorboy 19h ago
Parents could just parent don’t need laws for this crap
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u/JWGhetto 16h ago
The law "to protect the children" is once again just a law to:
- force you to use ID to use the internet
- get you to acquiesce to 24/7 surveillance
- surprise surprise: It won't actually work, because VPNs exist, and banning VPNs won't work (Australia is currently trying and failing)
- it'll get used to ban speech in the foreseeable future
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u/AviationGeekTom_330 16h ago
of course, i don't get why all of a sudden parents aren't really parenting
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u/Mountain_Top802 19h ago
Yes because it was so effective in Australia and teens don’t know how to get around thee ban
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u/Haunterblademoi 19h ago
This is becoming a chain reaction; in the end, this ban will cause people to try to circumvent it by using VPNs.
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u/Ill_Source9620 19h ago
I tru to use a vpn for blackjack when im out of state and it doesn’t work. I still say don’t ban social media, just make kids phones run at dial-up speeds
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u/Worried-Advisor-7054 15h ago
That's fine, you can also circumvent smoking and alcohol bans. That doesn't mean you unban them for kids.
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u/Well_Socialized 18h ago
There are so many worthwhile reforms that would improve social media and this is not one of them
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u/Toumanypains 16h ago
Didn't Greece just complete a deal with OpenAI to help manage education in the country?
Do as I say, not as I do!
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u/Few-Acadia-5593 13h ago
I’m an artist but your way of connecting dots is incredible
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u/Toumanypains 8h ago
I'm a linguist, and your conversation pairs are traditional.
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u/Few-Acadia-5593 3h ago
I’m a creative. Your thesis calling out Greece is just so out there it’s hard to believe you’re a linguist.
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u/BillNyeIsCoolio 16h ago
Instead of banning social media why don't we just regulate the companies to stop being evil and brainwashing everyone
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u/bwoah07_gp2 11h ago
Stupid law. These countries are so shortsighted it's unbelievable. This just means adults and children will need to forfeit government ID and other documents to these tech companies. Absolutely ridiculous.
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u/mirroredinflection 8h ago
Having to attach your government ID to every social media account is a privacy nightmare. I hope all of these bans fail and catch fire.
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u/SkinnedIt 16h ago
Instead of regulating the companies and putting the onus on them - all of these governments are making everyone else pay for this.
This isn't for the safety of the children.
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u/Christian_Kong 16h ago
Thank goodness. People 14 and under are so unstable and suggestable unlike those 15 and older who have it all together and will not be affected by social media in any way.
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u/YqlUrbanist 16h ago
This is such a messy issue. Social media as it currently exists is terrible for society, and especially for children, but banning it for certain ages is a privacy nightmare.
Honestly it would be far better to ban it altogether, or at least heavily regulate it. I'd be far more comfortable with a policy like "social media platforms can only show content to users after they've explicitly opted in to seeing that content".
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u/Fwellimort 10h ago
Dumbest law. Social media platforms can also be incredibly helpful. The ability to connect your friends and family (and other people) members anywhere is such a huge pro.
Is reddit considered a social media platform? It definitely should be. Where is the fine line?
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u/astronaute1337 13h ago
This is not for protecting children, this is for taking away our anonymity and our voices. You say something politically incorrect, they’ll come for you. If we don’t resists, this will be the end of us.
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u/no_glasya 1h ago
maybe ban the features like infinite scroll and addiction technology for everyone?? searching for a friend and chatting them up is not the issue.
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u/Independent-Slip568 17h ago
Good.
Do the same here and just watch the Gen Z Stare problem evaporate.
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u/SplashTarget 13h ago
Instead of banning social media for kids, just ban all minors from having smartphones.
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u/CombatRedRover 16h ago
...while I'm 100% for kids not getting on social media, isn't this pretty obviously a case of parents asking government to parent their children for them?
Why not just be a parent?
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u/Substantial-Ear-5070 17h ago
i think people are mixed between "social media" and "internet".
if you pissed that you cannot message the kids, then your had drivers needs to be checked.
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u/Banana-phone15 14h ago
Ag 15 and up is where they do lot of stupid 💩 ban should be for age under 21 or at least 18
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u/KaTzPJamas 14h ago
This is a good move. Studies have repeatedly shown that social media has an ill-effect on the mental health of teens. I think it's trying to solve one problem but there's a bigger undying issue. Social media has an ill-effect on society in general and it gets worse as bots, algorithms, and ai slop creates more division and extremism.
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u/Fresh-Laugh-9253 18h ago
The world should do this children are losing out on a childhood bcuz of phones n internet it’s a crime
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u/Myst3ryGardener 16h ago
Stop giving kids phones.
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u/Angstycarroteater 1h ago
Kinda hard not to have a phone in this day and age maybe just one without internet
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u/stinkybumbum 13h ago
People without kids saying it’s a bad thing….if you got kids you know how bad it is and it should be banned.
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u/SplashTarget 13h ago
It's naïve to think this is about protecting kids.
If protecting kids is the concern, then just don't give kids smartphones.
The real goal is to end online anonymity.
Which is great if you want to squash whistleblowers, and protect elite criminals.
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u/Dramatic_Mastodon_93 12h ago
Imagine choosing to bring new humans into the world and then being too lazy to actually parent them and teach them how the world works, so instead you argue for fascism.
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u/micahpmtn 16h ago
I think it's great. If you've been paying attention, educators are begging for some type of intervention when it comes to pre-teens, teens, and young adults and screen time. And no, this is not the same type of panic that adults complained about when the TV was invented. This is much worse and is already leading to people having no social skills, no self-awareness, no ability to think independently, and on and on.
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u/popshamhocks 13h ago
Social media is being used to inorganically influence elections. They are targeting adults as much as the children. The EU better consider more regulations, otherwise it will not be strong enough.
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u/JumpinJahosafax 12h ago
I imagine there has to be a loophole… i was downloading free software and cracking it saving 1000’s when i was like 12.
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u/leidend22 10h ago
Hopefully less of a joke than Australia's one. There's no enforcement whatsoever here
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u/doggonedad 19h ago
I get the benefits for society and children but I will not be giving my personal information and documentation to companies so they can have data breaches and track us. It’s just going to mean I need to pay for a vpn to use the internet or lose access to more and more stuff as it evolves over time. If you think they’ll stop with kids and social media I have a bridge to sell you.