Will social media really be banned for European teenagers? Italy and Austria have also joined the list of countries that want to implement the ban

In recent years, the possibility of introducing a ban on access to social media for children and adolescents under a certain age has become the subject of a broad public debate. The issue is now at the center of political discussions in several European countries: in Italy, for example, the topic has almost reached Parliament, with the president of the Veneto Region, Alberto Stefani, a member of the Lega party, who has announced his intention to present a bill that would ban the use of social media for minors under 14.

Stefani said he aims for a relatively quick approval of the measure, suggesting a process of a couple of months or slightly more, and claiming that the initiative already has the support of center-right parties. However, the details of the proposal have not yet been made public. According to previews provided by Stefani himself, the text would not be limited to introducing a ban for under-14s, but would also include funding for digital education projects aimed at parents, as well as possible sanctions against platforms that fail to comply with the new provisions.

Which countries are considering banning social media for minors?

The president of the Veneto Region said that the idea of promoting a national law to ban access to social media for adolescents came to him during a walk in a park. On that occasion, he explained, he noticed many young people focused on their smartphones instead of playing together or talking to each other - an episode that prompted him to try to counter what he himself defined as a “growing discomfort” among younger generations.

The debate on the effects of social networks on adolescents has been quite heated for years, and some governments have already introduced restrictive measures. The first country to adopt a national ban of this kind was Australia, which last December approved a law to limit minors’ access to platforms.

In Europe the issue is being discussed in Denmark, France, Spain and Austria - the latest country to join the list after Italy; similar proposals have also been considered in Asia, such as in Malaysia - while in Indonesia the ban is already in force. In many cases, these initiatives have been justified by concerns that intensive use of social networks may encourage forms of addiction, reduce attention span, and have negative effects on the mental health of minors and others.

In the United States, moreover, in January the first trial began aimed at determining whether companies that own major platforms - including Meta, YouTube, and TikTok - knowingly designed products intended to encourage so-called "doomscrolling", that is, the tendency to continuously and compulsively consume social media feeds, particularly among younger users.

How the ban would be implemented

European legislation, through the General Data Protection Regulation (better known by the acronym "GDPR"), establishes that consent for the processing of personal data can be given independently starting from the age of 13 - a threshold that, in fact, coincides with the minimum age required by many digital platforms to open an account; however, in practice, compliance with the rule is difficult to verify and age checks declared by users are very limited.

In countries that have introduced a ban on access to social networks for adolescents, however, the responsibility for enforcing the regulation falls on the companies that manage the individual platforms. These are required to verify the age of users before allowing registration or use of the service, for example through more or less complex verification systems, which may include cross-checks with other data or digital identification procedures.