Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced On Wednesday, Greece announced that it would ban access to social media for children under 15 from January 1, 2027.
The proposed ban is expected to be passed in the Greek Parliament by mid-2026. Leaders have made no public announcement about which online platforms will be affected. Minister of Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou said Enforcement will likely involve imposing fines on non-compliant platforms, similar to the framework in the EU Digital Services Act.
A poll in February found that 80 percent of Greeks surveyed agreed with a ban. This is not the first measure Greece has taken to restrict access to social media, as the government has previously banned mobile phones in schools and set up parental control platforms to limit teenagers’ screen time.
In 2025 Australia introduced a similarly sweeping social media ban, banning those under 16 from maintaining or creating accounts on social media apps such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, X, Facebook and others. Groups such as UNICEF Australia argued that the risks of social media such as cyberbullying, harmful content and online predators outweigh the positives. Other countries such as the UK, Malaysia, France, Denmark and Poland have either considered a ban or are continuing to legislate to do so.
Greece justified the ban using similar arguments to other nations – to protect the mental health and well-being of children and young people. Shared in a video on social mediaThe Prime Minister addressed the children directly and said: “I also speak to many of you who say you are tired of comparisons, of comments, of the constant pressure to be there all the time.”
However, support from the social media platforms themselves is often required. Non-profit in Australia OpenAge Initiative has launched a new set of age verification tools called AgeKeys. These are the first interoperable, privacy-compliant global age signals designed to help companies screen out underage accounts. To Meta’s most recent update The company told the Australian government it had blocked access to almost 550,000 accounts of people believed to be under 16 years old.
