The Spanish government plans to restrict access to social media for teenagers under 16 and, in parallel, change the approach to the liability of large online platforms for illegal and hateful content.
The Spanish government plans to restrict access to social media for teenagers under 16 and, in parallel, change the approach to the liability of large online platforms for illegal and hateful content.
According to Reuters, the Spanish government is also preparing a rule that would allow the heads of social platforms to be held personally liable in cases of systematic dissemination of hate speech or other illegal content. This was also stated by the country’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, commenting on new initiatives for the digital protection of children. Sanchez said that children today find themselves in an environment that was «never created for them» and the state is no longer willing to leave them alone with digital risks.
The Prime Minister stressed that the problem goes far beyond the borders of one country. According to him, Spain, together with several other European countries, is forming a coalition to coordinate rules and control transnational platforms. The first meeting of this group is planned to be held in the near future.
Separately, Sanchez said that prosecutors will investigate possible violations related to the work of the Grok chatbot, as well as the TikTok and Instagram platforms. The reason for the discussion was the emergence of AI-generated content, in particular non-consensual sexual material, including cases involving minors.
The Spanish Prime Minister’s statements were sharply responded to by X owner Elon Musk, who in posts on the platform turned to personal insults and accused Sanchez of authoritarianism. Representatives of Google, Meta, TikTok and Snapchat did not publicly comment on the Spanish government’s initiatives.
Governments around the world are increasingly reviewing policies on the impact of screen time and social media on children’s mental health. In December, Australia became the first country in the world to impose a nationwide ban on social media for users under 16. The platform has since deactivated millions of accounts belonging to teenagers, according to the local regulator, demonstrating the true scale of the impact of such restrictions.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how the French National Assembly voted for a bill that prohibits access to social networks for children under 15 and tightens restrictions on the use of smartphones in high schools.
