The World Moves to Shield Children from Social Media

On Wednesday, April 8, 2026, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that Greece will ban children under the age of 15 from accessing social media platforms, with the prohibition taking effect on January 1, 2027. The announcement — made, with deliberate symbolism, via a video posted to TikTok — signals the latest and most prominent step in a rapidly expanding international effort to regulate minors’ relationship with digital platforms.

In his address, Mitsotakis cited a now-familiar constellation of harms. He spoke of children who cannot sleep well, who grow anxious easily, and who spend hours comparing themselves to peers through screens. “Science is clear,” he said. “When a child is in front of screens for hours, their brain does not rest.” The announcement drew on months of preparation, including Greece’s earlier ban on mobile phones in schools and the creation of state-supported parental control platforms to limit teenagers’ screen time.

“Greece will be among the first countries to take such an initiative. I am certain, however, that it will not be the last. Our goal is to push the European Union in this direction as well.”

— Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, April 8, 2026

A poll conducted by ALCO and published in February 2026 found that approximately 80 percent of Greeks surveyed supported such a ban — a degree of public consensus that has given the government political confidence to act. The legislation is expected to pass through the Greek parliament by mid-2026, giving platforms roughly six months to prepare compliance systems before the January 2027 deadline.

Fines and Enforcement

Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou outlined the enforcement regime: platforms that fail to restrict access by underage users from January 1, 2027 face fines of up to 6 percent of their global annual revenue. This penalty framework mirrors the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which already imposes obligations on very large online platforms. Enforcement is also expected to involve a state-mandated application installed on personal devices, giving the measure technical teeth beyond purely regulatory warnings. Unlike similar restrictions enacted elsewhere, Greece’s ban will apply regardless of parental consent — closing an exemption that has diluted comparable efforts in other countries.

A Call for European Unity

Mitsotakis did not limit his ambitions to national action. On the same day as the announcement, he wrote directly to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urging coordinated EU action and arguing that national measures alone are insufficient to protect minors from online addiction. He proposed establishing an EU-wide “digital age of majority” set at 15, combined with mandatory age verification across all platforms and a harmonised enforcement and penalties framework. He called on the bloc to have a unified system in place by the end of 2026.

Whether Brussels will move at the pace Mitsotakis envisions remains to be seen. But the letter itself carries diplomatic weight: several other EU member states are already pursuing or considering similar restrictions, lending momentum to the idea of a common framework rather than a patchwork of national laws that technology companies can more easily circumvent.

The Global Picture: Who Has Acted, Who Is Moving

Greece’s announcement lands in a world that has been gradually, and then suddenly, shifting on this question. The table below summarises where major countries now stand.

The Evidence Driving Policy

The political movement is not happening in a vacuum. Research linking heavy adolescent social media use to poorer mental health outcomes — including higher rates of anxiety, depression, and disrupted sleep — has accumulated over the past decade, and has found an increasingly receptive audience among lawmakers and parents alike. In March 2026, Mitsotakis told a Bloomberg event in Athens that the evidence was “unambiguous” and that “addictive scrolling is damaging to their mental health.”

The platforms themselves have not publicly opposed the bans with the force many observers anticipated. Meta, in particular, has signalled willingness to engage with age-verification requirements, though critics argue that voluntary compliance without enforceable mandates — and meaningful fines — carries little weight. The Greek approach of tying penalties directly to global revenue represents a meaningful escalation: for a company like Meta, 6 percent of global revenue would amount to billions of dollars annually.

What Comes Next

Greece’s parliament is expected to pass the social media ban legislation by mid-2026, giving the country roughly six months to put technical enforcement infrastructure in place before the January 2027 effective date. The Greek government has said enforcement will rely primarily on a state-mandated application installed on devices, supplemented by platform-level age verification. Platforms unable to demonstrate compliance risk fines calibrated under the DSA framework.

For the broader European project, the timeline Mitsotakis has proposed — a bloc-wide age-verification framework by end of 2026 — is ambitious. EU digital legislation of that scope typically takes years. But the political momentum is real, and the Commission is unlikely to remain passive as a growing cohort of member states moves independently. The question is no longer whether Europe will act, but how quickly and how uniformly.

“Our aim is not to keep you away from technology, but to combat addiction to certain applications that harms your innocence and your freedom.”

— Prime Minister Mitsotakis, addressing Greek teenagers directly, April 8, 2026

The generation at the centre of this debate is watching from the very platforms it may soon be removed from. Whether governments can enforce what they have promised — and whether technology companies will comply in substance rather than form — will determine whether this wave of legislation represents genuine protection or well-intentioned theatre.