EU plans to ban under-13s from social media, with 'phased access' afterwards

https://9to5mac.com/2026/07/13/eu-plans-to-ban-under-13s-from-social-media-with-phased-access-afterwards/

53 points · 14 comments · view on lemmy.world

14 Comments

DmMacniel@feddit.org · 13 pts · 41d (3 replies)

sooooo about the Chat Control to protect our kids....

zutto@lemmy.fedi.zutto.fi · 12 pts · 41d (1 reply)

Politicians have short memory. It's been almost week since it was passed, how could you expect them to remember things from such distant past!

DmMacniel@feddit.org · 7 pts · 41d

Oh yes you are right of course. I expected too much.

skarn@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 40d

Well, not quite.

Chat Control's point was to prevent the material from circulating after it's been produced.

Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 11 pts · 41d (1 reply)

which is mostly push by tech companies, and people like thiel. its for limiting access to dissident information/protesting and to mine data of parents who give permission.

Sunshine@piefed.ca · 4 pts · 41d

There’s a massive push by the elites to limit the freedom of everyday people while climate change and wars continue to grow.

They need to establish control to reassure themselves from facing the consequences of the problems they have caused.

MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 41d (2 replies)

Aren't under-13s already banned from social media? I remember setting my birth year to 1977 rather than 1997 to access Facebook :P

Also, this should be handled by the parents/guardians, and the EU should provide a free and open source tool for parental control (social media blockers) on computers, phones, and other devices. Nothing less and NOTHING MORE.

piccolo@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 41d (1 reply)

No, most sites prohibit under 13 because they simply do not want to deal with the special requirements of COPPA.

MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 39d

Oh, okay. Got it. Thanks for clarifying!

pilaz@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 41d

Good. Social media addiction rates are five to ten times those of gambling, and yet we protect those under 18 from accessing those. There is also a strong correlation between heavy social media use and suicidal ideation.

Just FYI, big tech opposes this. Meta is flooding European digital advertising with "Instagram for teenagers", posturing that parents can implement parental controls on who teens can communicate with, as if that were the issue we're trying to fix.

Bosht@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 41d

It astounds me that we live in the day and age that the data is fucking there and corpo shits can just lobby and pay off actual progression. I'm quite sick of it honestly. It's clear they've made social media as addicting as possible and don't give a shit about the effects it has on anyone, they only give a shit about their bottom dollar. I don't even know what the fuck kind of hope we're supposed to have at this point. I've kept my kids away from it thankfully but that doesn't mean shit as there are countless other parents that are fucking dumb sacks of shit and/or don't care.

fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 41d

We have to stop this

cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone · 1 pts · 39d

why fight the rising threat of fascism across europe when you can attack safe spaces for queer kids?>>

RedGreenBlue@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 41d

This should not be allowed. Whoever proposes this or votes for it should go to jail. No ID to go on the internet. That is where this is going.