Greece is set to become yet another country with plans to introduce a series of regulations aiming to curb digital addiction among young users under 15, and to protect them from the dangers of social media overexposure.
The government’s plans include a framework for platforms to enforce mandatory age checks, along with the introduction of a mechanism that will be included in the parental control application that could locate certain “keywords” and block them so that users under 15 would not have access to disturbing and harassing content.
“Digital threat has a double face,” Sofia Zacharaki, Minister of Social Cohesion and Family Affairs told Greek SKAI TV on Wednesday. “It’s not only that children remain glued on social media. They are isolated and this carries a double risk: the risk of depression and the risk of digital isolation, where they think that they have a friend and create a fake, digital world without living on the outside world. There were children who had refused to go to school.”
The government’s latest plans come after Greece banned mobile phones in schools in September in another effort to combat the growing issue of juvenile delinquency, fomented by the spread of violent and harmful content on social media. The latest initiatives are supported by a report from a scientific committee led by Professor Vasiliki Artinopoulou. Recommendations include launching awareness campaigns, reworking algorithms to reduce harmful content for minors, and equipping parents with more tools to manage their children’s screen time.
Greece’s move is in line with similar successful models adopted by Australia, which recently introduced legislation banning anyone under 16 from having a social media account (and which has been hailed by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis), and France, which has also introduced legislation that prevents users under 15 from accessing social media.
In a public opinion poll conducted by ALCO for Greek ALPHA TV on Tuesday, December 10, 72 percent of Greeks responded that they agree with Australia’s recent social media ban for minors under the age of 16, echoing Greek parents’ grave concerns over the negative effect mobile phones and social media can have on their children.
Greece’s urgency to tackle social media delinquency among young users is a European issue
Greece’s government has been debating for months how to tackle digital delinquency among minors and has been exploring different plans and proposals. The plans to address the problem were brought together by the Greek Prime Minister’s office, who has described it as a pan-European crisis.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting in October, Kyriakos Mitsotakis emphasized the need for coordinated action at the European Union level, highlighting the digital footprint of bullying and its connection to real-world violence. “We are facing a global crisis that goes beyond Greece,” Mitsotakis said. “There will be a need for regulatory intervention, likely at the EU level, to tackle this issue at its root.”
Discussions are under way to establish a digital maturity age of 15 across the European Union, with restrictions imposed by all member-states. Dimitris Papastergiou, Minister of Digital Governance has called the issue “urgent,” saying that collaboration between EU countries is pivotal in pressuring tech giants to adopt systems that can accurately verify the user’s age, since, according to Papastergiou, “age verification is the most difficult thing to bring off.”
A recent nationwide study conducted in Greece named “Online Violence” found that over half of the teenagers aged 12-18 who were surveyed had been exposed to online violence, either as bystanders or as victims. The study, organized by the Greek Safer Internet Center SaferInternet4Kids of FORTH, also found that of the 4,800 teenagers surveyed, 44 percent said they have witnessed gender-based harassment or abuse incidents online, and 11 percent have experienced gender-based harassment or abuse.
