France has been one of the European countries that has taken the restriction of access to social networks for minors most seriously. The commitment of the French head of state, Emmanuel Macron, who already managed to push a law to set that limit at 15 years and ban mobile phones in schools starting next September, now culminates with a videoconference meeting at the highest European level to set common guidelines. “The goal is to establish a coalition to generate a majority that allows progress in that direction,” they say at the Élysée, which highly valued the participation of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose country has so far been one of the most reluctant.
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From five in the afternoon, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the President of the Italian Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, the Irish Prime Minister, Micheál Martin, and the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriákos Mitsotákis, will participate in this meeting. “It reflects the interest and progress on this issue,” say sources from the Élysée. Paris hopes with this type of meeting to present scientific reports pointing to the damage that social networks can cause in childhood and adolescence and the benefits that establishing an age limit could bring.
The starting idea is also to analyze the state of implementation of measures that allow restricting the use of social networks for children and adolescents. The European Commission, in fact, already has the application to verify the age of users of digital platforms “technically ready.” Member States will now be able to use this architecture to develop their own applications, adapted to their national needs.
The digital application to faithfully verify age is a project that the European Commission has been developing for some time. “France, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, and Ireland are ahead. They are planning to integrate this app into the national digital wallet. I hope more Member States and the private sector will do so so that every citizen can soon use this application,” Von der Leyen said in her presentation on Wednesday.
The goal these months has been to create a European coalition favorable to the digital majority. This group started with six Member States. Today there are, according to the Élysée, approximately a dozen that support or have initiated legislative processes to establish a digital majority at the national level. The same sources estimate that there are also around twenty that are considering the issue or have expressed a favorable opinion. The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, announced in February his intention to ban access to social networks for those under 16 years old.
The aim of the meeting is to eliminate the reluctance that some countries may have to expand the coalition of supporters and be able to advance the introduction of a digital age of majority at the community level. Also to confirm that this kind of enhanced cooperation or vanguard is expanding, say sources from the Élysée.
One of the problems the issue presents is the consensus in the EU on the age of that digital majority. Some set it at 15 and others at 16. According to the Élysée, the common point is that “it must be done within the framework of the DSA (Digital Services Act), and that Member States can establish a digital age of majority at the national level.” The DSA, in reality, does not obligatorily set what that age should be, since this issue is for now left to the principle of subsidiarity and the decision of the Member States.
In France, the choice has been to set the minimum age at 15 years. And it seems that this will be the choice of the majority of Member States. Others, like the Austrians, who will also participate in the videoconference, have opted for 14 years. “The reality is that we will tend to converge around 15 years in most cases, and it is not a problem that some Member States are more ambitious, especially at a time when the aim is to expand the core of voluntary and pioneering countries that want to move towards this digital majority,” the same sources point out.
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