Spain intends to prohibit social networks among the minors 16 years old. The president Pedro Sanchez He celebrated on Tuesday that, in this way, it will become the first European country to adopt this draconian measure with the intention of protecting the youngest from what he described as the “digital Wild West.” However, he is not the only one.
The proposal of Government Spanish, which will be detailed next week, is already “in process in the Congress“, indicated yesterday the Minister of Children, Sira Rego. The announced package of measures, which includes holding the owners of those companies criminally responsible digital platforms and criminalize the manipulation of algorithms as crimeis reflected in others implemented or studied by other countries that are also taking the lead.
This is what they have put on the table:
Last December 10, Australia was a pioneer in the world by applying a veto that, on paper, makes it impossible for people 15 years old or younger to access Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, X (before Twitter), Threads, Twitch, Kick y YouTube. Others like Discord or the video game Roblox have not been affected.
To ensure that your prohibition is met, the Australian Executive has established that these companies must adopt technologies that allow you to verify the identity of your users. These range from ID scanning to facial or voice recognition systems, as well as algorithms that predict the age of Internet users based on their behavior. If they do not adopt these methods – which entail both reliability problems and risks to the privacy— may be punished with fines of up to 30 million euros.
Beyond Sánchez’s statements, the first European country to approve the ban on social networks among children under 15 years of age is France. On January 26, French legislators gave the green light to a bill that must now be debated in the Senate and that also seeks to veto the use of mobile phones in all institutes in the country.
If all the legislative obstacles are passed, the measure would begin to be applied in September, according to the calendar proposed by the French Government. It will not only affect minors. And the law will force all French users to verify their age before the end of 2026, reports The World. From that point on, only the identity of new users who register will be verified.
The French project, defended fiercely by Emmanuel Macrondoes not specify what tool platforms should use to guarantee that Internet users are who they say they are, but it does recommend that it be “double anonymous.” This request opens the door for, as in Spain, the method that ends up being imposed to be (EUDI Wallet), a application who is developing the European Commission that would guarantee the anonymity and the protection of user data. For now, it is in the testing phase.
As Madrid, Paris has joined the so-called “Coalition of the Digitally Willing”, an alliance between five European countries that share their intention to increase the regulation of social networks in a “strict, efficient and efficient” way.
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