Greece Social Media Ban for Under-15s Becomes Law

The Greece social media ban just became law, and it targets everyone under fifteen. Greek lawmakers approved the bill after a debate that ran for more than sixteen hours, and the rules start on the first of January, twenty twenty-seven. If you have a younger sibling on TikTok or Instagram, this one hits close to home.

What the new law says

According to The Next Web, parliament approved the bill late on the twenty-second of October. Only the governing New Democracy party backed it. The socialist PASOK party abstained, while SYRIZA, the Communist Party and several smaller parties voted against.

The ban covers social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and whether a service counts depends on how it works rather than what it is called. Parents cannot give permission for a child to sign up, and existing accounts are not exempt. Messaging apps remain open to under-fifteens, TechRadar noted.

How age checks will work

The big question is how platforms will prove who is old enough. Under the plan, an app that cannot confirm a user's age shows a QR code that is scanned with Kids Wallet, a government app. The app tells the platform only whether the user is over or under fifteen, without sharing a name or birth date.

Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou said the government gives platforms none of its children's personal data. Greece's broadcasting council and data protection authority will oversee compliance, while the European Commission handles the largest services under the Digital Services Act. The law adds no new fines for children or their parents.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has given platforms about two and a half months to build age-verification systems that protect privacy, according to Reuters.

Why Greece says it is acting

Mitsotakis first announced the plan in April, and he did it on TikTok, calling the ban a difficult but necessary measure. Al Jazeera reported that lawmakers argue endless scrolling robs kids of sleep, concentration and time with friends. Critics of social networks also point to addictive algorithms and the risk to mental health.

Minister of State Akis Skertsos told parliament that there is no more time to waste. For the government, the pitch is simple: give childhood back to kids who are glued to their screens.

Not everyone is convinced

Parents are split too. Some welcome a rule that takes pressure off families who struggle to say no when every classmate is online. Others worry that a blanket ban treats a fourteen-year-old and a six-year-old the same way, and that it could push young users toward less regulated corners of the internet.

The opposition challenged the plan on practical and legal grounds. PASOK had pushed for a softer alternative that would ban social media for under-thirteens and add parental controls for thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds. Others question how a ban can be enforced when teens are skilled at working around rules.

The evidence from other countries is mixed. Australia's ban for under-sixteens took effect in December twenty twenty-five. In France, the Constitutional Council struck down an under-fifteen ban in August, ruling it went too far in restricting freedom of expression, as The Next Web recounted.

Al Jazeera counts about twenty countries that now restrict social media access for young people, including Australia, France, Brazil, Indonesia, Austria, Denmark and the United Kingdom. Greece is also one of seven European Union countries working with the European Commission on a shared age-verification tool.

What it means for Gen Z and beyond

Teenagers in Greece will feel it first. Many of them use these apps to chat with friends, follow creators and keep up with news, so losing access overnight is a big shift. Younger kids may simply move to messaging apps, which stay legal, or try to use fake birthdays until the new checks catch up.

The Greece social media ban is a sign that the debate has moved from whether to limit kids online to how. If the Kids Wallet approach works, it could become a model for the rest of Europe. If it falls apart, it will fuel the argument that bans are easy to pass and hard to enforce.

For platforms, the clock is ticking. They have a matter of weeks to prove they can check ages without collecting extra data, and January will be the first real test. Follow more coverage in the tech section and the world section.