Greece has become one of the first European Union member states to legislate a firm minimum age for social media use, passing a bill Thursday that will bar children under 15 from accessing platforms starting January 1, 2027. The measure, approved by parliament with only the governing New Democracy party voting in favor, places Greece at the front of a growing European push to regulate how young people interact with digital platforms.
What the Law Requires
The legislation obliges social media companies to determine whether an account belongs to an adult or a minor before the deadline takes effect. Platforms will need functioning age-verification systems in place by the start of 2027, rather than relying on the self-declared birthdates that have long served as the industry's default - and widely circumvented - safeguard. Dimitris Papastergiou, Greece's Minister of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence, described the approach as "necessary, effective, proportionate and EU-law-compliant," framing it as comparable to existing age restrictions on alcohol and tobacco sales.
Central to enforcement is an application called "Kid's Wallet," built to EU technical standards. According to Papastergiou, the tool confirms only whether a user is above or below the age threshold and does not collect or transmit personal data, including birthdates. That design choice reflects an attempt to reconcile two competing demands: verifying age reliably while minimizing the amount of sensitive identity data platforms and governments hold on minors.
Political Divisions Over the Approach
The vote exposed sharp disagreement in the Greek parliament. Opposition parties SYRIZA, Greek Solution, KKE, Niki and Freedom Course voted against the bill, while PASOK abstained. The objections point to familiar tensions in age-verification debates: concerns about enforcement feasibility, the risk of pushing children toward unregulated corners of the internet, and skepticism that a national law can meaningfully constrain platforms headquartered outside Greek jurisdiction. Papastergiou's rejoinder was blunt - Athens could not wait for "the perfect European law" to emerge from Brussels while, in his words, "uncontrolled internet use" continues to drive addiction and harm children's mental health.
Part of a Wider European and Global Shift
Greece's move did not emerge in isolation. Australia set the precedent last year by introducing a social media age floor, and momentum has since built across multiple jurisdictions. Greece is now one of seven EU countries actively working toward standardized age-verification requirements for social platforms, a sign that Brussels may eventually face pressure to harmonize rules bloc-wide rather than leave each capital to legislate independently.
The policy rationale rests on concerns that have accumulated for years: endless-scrolling design features that erode sleep and attention, reduced time for unstructured play and in-person socializing, and the broader question of how platforms engineered for engagement affect still-developing minds. Age-verification technology remains imperfect - systems can be bypassed with false information, borrowed identification, or simply a family member's credentials - and critics across the political spectrum argue that technical fixes cannot substitute for platform design changes or digital literacy education.
Still, the law signals a shift in how governments view the burden of proof. Rather than asking parents and children to self-police platform use, Greece is placing the verification obligation squarely on the companies that profit from engagement. Whether "Kid's Wallet" or similar tools can scale without compromising privacy, and whether enforcement will meaningfully reduce underage access rather than simply displace it to less regulated services, remains to be tested when the law takes effect in under two years.