Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has announced that her government will ban the use of social media for children under 15 years old. She told lawmakers that internet culture has “unleashed a monster” among adolescents, leading to a rise in depression and anxiety.
In her speech to the Danish Parliament on October 7, Frederiksen unveiled this proposal, accusing internet giants and mobile phones of “stealing children’s childhoods.”
She did not specify which social networks the new measures will target but indicated that the legislation will cover “several” social media platforms.
Denmark is following in the footsteps of its Nordic neighbor Norway, which has also introduced a similar bill. Additionally, Australia plans to implement restrictions on social media use for those under 16 years old by December this year.
This does not equate to a total ban. Frederiksen stated that parents can choose to allow their children to use social media from the age of 13. While the minimum age for most social media platforms is 13, a survey cited by Frederiksen in her speech revealed that 94% of Danish children have registered accounts on social media before entering their teenage years.
The data Frederiksen cited also showed that 60% of boys aged 11 to 19 do not see any friends during their free time.
Denmark’s Minister for Digital Affairs Caroline Stage expressed in a statement, “We have been too naive. We have handed over our children’s online lives to platforms that have never considered their mental well-being. We must help them move from digital cages to communities.”
“Our children and adolescents have been pawns in a massive experiment, where algorithms and addictive elements are allowed to influence their daily lives, and all of this must stop now. That is why we are introducing a nationwide minimum age restriction of 15. It’s about the welfare of children, their freedom, and their right to be guided by curiosity and a healthy community, not by notification and like controls from applications.”
Denmark’s next parliamentary elections are scheduled to take place before November 1, 2026, meaning that if the bill does not become law by then, it may be put on hold with a change in government. Frederiksen leads a coalition government composed of left and right-wing parties.
The guidelines for protecting minors issued by the European Commission paved the way for Denmark to set a national minimum age restriction on social media.
Norway, as a non-EU member, has also aimed to increase the statutory minimum age for children using social media from 13 to 15, according to Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
Australia is set to enforce the world’s first ban on social media for those under 16 by the end of this year, involving platforms such as Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, after passing related laws in November 2024.
Under the ban, platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X, and Instagram face fines of up to $50 million Australian dollars (approximately $32.6 million USD) if they fail to prevent underage account ownership.
While the legislation is not without controversy, digital rights organizations have raised concerns about age verification for online content triggering worries about privacy, data protection, and proportionality.
Digital Rights Watch has also opposed social media giants gaining more access to Australian user data, and some experts believe that enforcing the law will be challenging. Google even threatened to sue the Australian government over including YouTube in the ban.
After a school stabbing incident in June this year, French President Emmanuel Macron announced his intention to push for a ban on social media use for those under 15 across the entire EU.
Macron stated that if Brussels fails to enforce this ban, he will do so unilaterally in France, citing social media as one of the factors leading to youth violence.
Legislators in other EU countries, including Spain and Greece, have also proposed age recommendations for reaching “digital adulthood.”
In the UK, the Online Safety Act has been passed, which does not directly prohibit children from using social media but requires platforms to implement stricter age verification methods and provide users with an “age-appropriate” experience.
New Zealand and the Canadian province of Quebec are also considering similar laws.
In the US, Utah has passed legislation requiring minors to obtain parental consent to use social media, mandates platform age verification, prohibits targeted advertising to minors, and enforces curfews for unauthorized underage users.
Texas previously proposed a bill to ban individuals under 18 from using or creating social media accounts, but it was postponed in May this year due to a lack of votes.
California also plans to prohibit social media platforms from providing addictive content to children without parental consent starting in 2027.
Florida passed a similar law in 2024, prohibiting children under 14 from using social media accounts and requiring parental permission for teenagers aged 14 to 15, but a federal judge halted state officials from enforcing the law.
This article was assisted by Guy Birchall.