Spain and Greece have proposed banning teenagers from using social media, reflecting a hardening stance in Europe against technology that critics say is designed to be addictive and harmful to young people, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said platforms should implement strong age-verification systems and that children must be protected from harmful online content.
Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Sánchez said, “Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone. We will no longer accept that. We will protect them.”
The proposed measures, which still require approval by Spain’s parliament, would compel social media companies to introduce strict age checks.
Sánchez said he hoped to push the legislation through as early as next week. Social media companies have argued that such bans would be ineffective and difficult to enforce.
The proposals follow Australia’s landmark 2025 move to ban social media use by children under 16, the first such national law in the world.
Under Australia’s rules, under-16s are barred from opening new accounts, and existing profiles are deactivated.
Platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitch, Threads, and Reddit were required to adjust their systems to comply.
Australia’s government evaluates platforms based on whether their primary purpose is social interaction, whether users can interact with others, and whether users can post content.
Services including YouTube Kids, Google Classroom, and WhatsApp were excluded, while critics have urged the government to extend the ban to gaming platforms like Roblox and Discord.
Meta said it blocked about 550,000 accounts in the first days after the law took effect on December 4, 2025.
Other European countries that signalled plans to introduce national age limits for social media use, including France, Denmark, and Greece, have also
The proposals have drawn sharp reactions online. Elon Musk, owner of X, criticised Sánchez’s measures, calling him “a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain” in a post on the platform.
For Tanzania and much of Africa, no government has yet proposed a nationwide ban on social media use by minors. However, digital safety concerns are growing as more young people come online through smartphones and affordable data connections.
Education and child welfare experts in Tanzania have increasingly raised alarms over cyberbullying, exposure to harmful content, online scams, and excessive screen time, prompting calls for stronger digital literacy programmes, parental controls, and regulation.
As Europe and Australia move toward stricter controls, the debate over whether African countries should introduce age limits, strictly platform regulation, or enhanced child protection frameworks is likely to intensify, as social media becomes more central to education, commerce, and daily life across the continent.