Spain has proposed a ban on the use of social media by teenagers because of attitudes that have hardened in Europe against technology, taking personal insults against the prime minister from Elon Musk.
The government is preparing a series of measures including banning social media for those under 16, the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said, promising to protect children from the “digital wild west” and hold tech companies responsible for hateful and harmful content.
Sánchez said on Tuesday that urgent action was needed because social media was a “failed state where laws are ignored and crimes are allowed”.
He also took Musk to task for using X to “promote disinformation” over his administration’s decision last week to regularize 500,000 undocumented workers and asylum seekers, pointing out that Musk himself is a migrant.
Musk wrote to X in response: “Dirty Sánchez is a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain.” About an hour and a half later, he escalated his criticism, posting on X: “Sánchez is the real fascist totalitarian.”
Representatives of Google, part of Alphabet, TikTok, Snapchat and Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the proposed measures in Spain.
Greece is about to announce a similar ban for children under 15, a senior government source said.
Spain and Greece are looking to join countries such as Britain and France in considering tougher social media rules, after Australia in December became the first country to ban access to such platforms for children under 16.
Governments and regulators around the world are looking at the impact of children’s screen time on their development and mental well-being.
“Our children are exposed to a space that they are not meant to navigate alone … We will not accept that anymore,” Sanchez said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai. “We will protect them from the digital wild west.”
Spain joined five other European countries that he called the “coalition of the digitally willing” to coordinate and implement cross-border regulation, said Sanchez, who did not name the countries, scheduled to hold their first meeting in the coming days.
“We know this is a war that goes beyond the borders of any country,” he said. His office did not respond to a request for clarification.
Legislation banning children under 15 from social media has been passed by the French parliament. Britain is also considering similar measures.
The proposed regulation in Spain will give parents clear support in setting limits and relieve social pressure for children who are worried about getting lost, said Diana Diaz, director of the ANAR Foundation for at-risk children and adolescents.
The recent explosion of AI-generated content, and public outcry over reports of Musk’s Grok AI chatbot creating non-consensual sexual images, including of minors, has sparked debate over the risks of such online content.
But there is no unanimous agreement that social media is harmful to young people, said Jose Cesar Perales, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Granada.
Sanchez said that prosecutors will explore ways to investigate possible legal violations by Grok, as well as TikTok and Instagram, regarding Meta.
The proposed ban will be implemented as part of an amendment to an existing bill on digital protection for minors being debated in parliament, a government spokesman said.
About 82% of people in Spain say they believe that children under 14 should be banned from social media, according to an Ipsos poll on education published in August last year. That’s up from 73% in 2024.
With Reuters