of age. The efforts of the French head of state, Emmanuel Macron, who has already managed to promote a law to set this limit at 15 years and ban mobile phones in schools starting next September, now culminates with a meeting by videoconference at the highest European level to establish common guidelines. “The objective is to establish a coalition so that a majority is generated that allows progress in that direction,” they point out in the Elysée, who highly valued the participation of the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, whose country has until now been one of the most reticent.
Starting at five in the afternoon, the president of the Italian Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, the Irish Prime Minister, Micheál Martin, will participate in this meeting. o Greek Prime Minister Kyriákos Mitsotákis. “It is a reflection of the interest and progress in this issue,” say Elysée sources. With this type of meeting, Paris aspires to present scientific reports that point to the damage that social networks can cause in childhood and adolescence and the benefits that establishing an age limit could bring.
The starting idea is to also analyze the state of implementation of the measures that allow children and adolescents to restrict the use of social networks. the age of users of digital platforms. Member states will now be able to use this architecture to develop their own applications, tailored to their national needs.
The digital application to faithfully verify age is a project that the European Commission has been developing for some time. “France, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Ireland are ahead. They are planning to integrate this app into the national digital wallet. I hope that more Member States and the private sector will do so so that every citizen can soon use this application,” Von der Leyen said in her presentation on Wednesday.
The objective these months has been to create a European coalition favorable to the digital majority. This group started with six Member States. Today there are, according to the Elysée, approximately a dozen who support or have initiated legislative processes to establish a digital majority at the national level. The same sources estimate that there are also around twenty who are considering the issue or have expressed a favorable opinion. its intention to prohibit the access of minors under 16 years of age to social networks.
The objective of the meeting is to eliminate any reluctance that some countries may present in order to expand the coalition of those in favor and be able to advance in the introduction of a digital age of majority at the community level. Also note that this type of reinforced or vanguard cooperation is expanding, say sources from the Eslysée.
One of the problems that the issue presents is the consensus in the EU on the age of this digital majority. Some set it at 15 and others at 16. According to the Elysée, the common point is that “it must be done within the framework of the DSA (Digital Services Act), and that Member States can establish a digital age of majority at national level.” The DSA, in fact, does not establish in a mandatory manner what that age should be, since this issue is left for now to the principle of subsidiarity and to the decision of the Member States.
In France it has been decided to set the minimum age at 15 years. And it seems that it will be the choice of the majority of Member States. Others, such as the Austrians, who will also participate in the video conference, have opted for 14 years. “The reality is that we will tend to converge around 15 years in most cases, and that it is not a problem that some Member States are more ambitious, especially at a time when they are seeking to expand the core of voluntary and pioneering countries that wish to advance towards this digital majority,” the same sources point out.
