Greece Sets Digital Age Wall: Minors' Access Blocked

Children in Greece will be locked out of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X when the new year begins. The country's parliament has approved legislation barring anyone under the age of 15 from accessing these platforms, with enforcement scheduled for January 1, 2027. To comply with the mandate, these services must deploy reliable age-verification methods to confirm user status.

Parents will play an active role in maintaining these restrictions. The law requires families to utilize state-backed applications known as Kids Wallet or Gov.gr, which link directly to a child's device to disable access. These tools rely on age tokens to confirm a user's eligibility while minimizing the collection of personal data, according to digital governance minister Dimitris Papastergiou.

The push for this regulation began earlier this year when Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis first proposed the measure. He characterized the proposal as difficult but necessary to enact. This move comes as the European Commission introduces the EU Kids Act, a framework that sets a lower threshold by calling for restrictions only on children under 13.

Mitsotakis has openly stated his government's goal is to push the European Union in this direction as well. He also noted it would have been easy to do nothing today and wait for the perfect European law. However, he added, the challenge is here, and children are sinking into the internet every day.

Papastergiou echoed this urgency, stating a responsible government must do what it is obliged to do. He emphasized the immediate need to act rather than delay for future legislation. The current proposal has received wide backing from the adult population in the country, according to opinion polls.

Despite this support, opposition parties within Greece's minority factions pushed back against the bill. Mitsotakis utilized his majority government to pass the measure. This follows a previous initiative in 2024 that prohibited mobile phones in schools.

The legislation is now official and will go into effect on January 1, 2027. Platforms that fail to comply will face penalties under the EU's Digital Services Act. Greece is not the first to attempt such a ban; Australia was the first nation to enact a full social media restriction for kids, though age verification has proved challenging to implement there.