Greece Moves to Bar Under-15s From Social Media, Requiring Age Checks
Greece's parliament has passed a law barring children under 15 from social media from January 1, 2027, with platforms required to verify user ages.
Greece's parliament has approved a law that bars children under 15 from social media, according to TechRadar. The restrictions are scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027, and would cover large platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Lawmakers gave final approval late on October 22, after a debate that stretched past 16 hours.
Under the measure, platforms would have to verify the ages of their users. TechRadar reports that this requirement could reach well beyond children, since every account holder may eventually need to prove their age. The Greek government has pointed to its Kids Wallet app as a privacy-friendly way to handle those checks, though how that app would connect to individual services remains an open question.
Engadget reports that Greece has now enacted the ban after first announcing the measure earlier this year, making it one of the first European countries to turn a teen social media restriction into law.
TechRadar also notes that Greece is following Australia's lead on the issue. It adds that a comparable attempt in France was struck down, and that the United Kingdom is preparing rules of its own.
Background
Concern about young people and social media has grown steadily over the past decade. Parents, teachers and health researchers have raised questions about sleep, attention, body image and exposure to harmful content, and debate continues over how strong the link is and what causes it. Most major platforms have long set a minimum age of 13 for accounts, largely because of privacy rules in the United States that restrict data collection from younger children. In practice, that minimum has been easy to get around, since many children simply enter a false birth year.
That gap is the core problem lawmakers are trying to solve. Age checks can be done in several ways, including asking users to declare their age, estimating age from facial analysis, or requiring official identification. Each method carries trade-offs. Self-declaration is simple but weak, while stronger checks often require handing sensitive personal information to companies or third parties, which raises its own privacy and security concerns.
Governments have approached the issue differently. The European Union has addressed the protection of minors through its Digital Services Act, which places obligations on large online platforms. Australia has moved toward a firmer minimum age for social media, and other countries are studying similar options. Efforts in individual countries have not always survived legal review, which is part of why each new law is closely watched.
Why it matters
Greece's law is significant less for its size than for what it signals. A national ban that requires platforms to verify ages would shift responsibility from parents and families onto companies and the state. It also raises the question of whether age verification can be done in a way that protects children without turning every user into a verified identity. If it works, other governments may copy the approach. If it creates privacy risks or proves easy to bypass, it could strengthen the argument against such laws.
The rule also affects platforms that operate across borders. Companies may be tempted to build one verification system for the whole European Union, or to adopt a single global standard, rather than manage a patchwork of national requirements. That could bring real changes for ordinary users, who may be asked to confirm their age in ways they have never had to before.
For families, the law introduces a new set of expectations about what online access looks like for teenagers. For regulators, it offers a test case in whether a legal ban can be enforced in practice. Much will depend on details that have not yet been fully described in the reporting, including how verification works and how the rules will be enforced once they begin.
What to watch
The first question is how the age checks will work day to day, and whether the Kids Wallet app becomes the main tool or one option among several. Watch for guidance from the government and for statements from the major platforms about how they plan to comply before the January 2027 start date.
Also watch how the law fares under European and national legal review, given that France's earlier attempt did not survive. Developments in the United Kingdom and Australia may offer useful comparisons. Finally, look for early reports on whether young people find ways around the rules and how regulators respond if they do.
Viewpoints
Commentary from our columns: three angles on this story.
The Rulebook privacy, safety and regulation
Greece has taken a clear position: the duty to keep children off certain platforms should sit with the law and the companies that run those services, not with an individual parent trying to keep up alone. That instinct deserves respect. Children are not well placed to weigh the long-term effects of endless feeds, and many parents feel outmatched by the systems their kids use every day.
The harder part is the verification mechanism. Any rule that asks platforms to confirm age has to answer a basic question: what information is collected, who holds it, and how long it is kept. A system that protects minors but creates a new store of identity data for hackers to target would be a poor trade. The government's pointer toward a privacy-friendly app is a promising signal, but promises of privacy are only as good as the design and the oversight behind them.
Regulators should insist on data minimization, clear limits on reuse, and independent audits. If Greece gets those details right, it could offer a model that other countries can borrow. If it does not, the law may protect children on paper while exposing everyone else to new risks.
The User what changes for people who use it
For most people, the change will not be a single dramatic moment. It will show up as a new screen asking for proof of age, a longer sign-up process, or a prompt to link a verification tool. Adults may be surprised to find that the rule touches them too, because the reporting suggests that verification may eventually apply to every user.
That is worth thinking about before January. Families will need to sort out which accounts are affected, how a teenager's existing profile will be handled, and what happens to messages, photos and friends lists built over years. Simple questions with unclear answers can cause real frustration.
The best outcome is one where the process feels quick and boring. People should not have to dig through legal text to understand what they are being asked to share. Clear instructions, a plain explanation of what is stored, and an easy way to opt out of unnecessary data sharing would go a long way toward making the change bearable.
The Skeptic open questions and weak points
A law can pass in a single night and still leave the hardest questions unanswered. Greece's parliament finished after a debate of more than sixteen hours, which says something about how contested the measure was. It is fair to ask whether a ban like this will change behavior, or whether it will mostly move teenagers to other apps, private messages or workarounds that regulators have not yet imagined.
The verification requirement deserves the same scrutiny. Checking age reliably is technically difficult, and the methods that work best tend to be the most intrusive. There is also the question of what happens when a platform is unsure of a user's age, and whether that uncertainty pushes companies toward collecting more data than they need.
None of this means the goal is misguided. It does mean that supporters should be specific about how success will be measured. Without that, a headline-friendly ban risks becoming a symbol rather than a solution.