Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Spain plans to ban access to social media for minors under 16 and require platforms to implement age-verification systems, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday. He announced additional measures aimed at ensuring a safe digital environment.
Government concerns and call for European action
Sanchez’s left-wing coalition government has repeatedly raised concerns about the proliferation of hate speech, pornographic content and disinformation on social media, saying it has negative effects on young people. Addressing the World Government Summit in Dubai, Sanchez called on other European countries to implement similar measures.
Reference to international moves
Australia in December became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, a move being closely watched by other countries considering similar age-based measures, including Britain and France.
“Coalition of the Digitally Willing”
Sanchez said Spain had joined five other European countries in what he called the “Coalition of the Digitally Willing” to coordinate and enforce cross-border regulation. He said the coalition would hold its first meeting in the coming days but did not identify the countries involved, and his office did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Planned legislation and enforcement measures
Spain will introduce a bill next week to hold social media executives accountable for illegal and hate-speech content, Sanchez said. The bill would also criminalise algorithmic manipulation and the amplification of illegal content.
He also proposed a system to track hate speech online, and said platforms would be required to introduce age-verification systems that were “not just check boxes.”
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