It’s time to put children before Big Tech and limit social media to over-15s only

Ensuring that children are safe online, just as in the physical world, should be a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, that is not the reality today.

Far too many children and teens experience stress, anxiety, sleep problems and declining well-being from extensive use of social media, where addictive feeds, harmful content, and endless scrolling is not the exception — but the norm. This is not an accident. It’s a business model, in which our children’s unrestrained attention is the currency. 

Meanwhile, the American and Chinese tech giants behind these platforms operate with virtually no accountability.

Instead, parents are left to fight alone against algorithms deliberately designed to keep children glued to their screens.

The forces at play are too great for families to manage alone. Political action is needed. Society must support families to ensure that children grow up in a safe digital environment — not in an online experimental lab. 

Important steps are already being taken.

Norwegian example

In Norway, the Social Democratic government has proposed banning social media platforms from offering their services to children under 15.

Meanwhile, Denmark has leveraged its EU council presidency to put protection of minors at the top of the EU’s agenda and is working hard for a European social media ban for kids under 15.

In the European Parliament, Swedish and Danish Social Democrats have joined forces to push for stronger protection of minors.

We can go a long way at national level, but we can longer together. The tech giants behind the social media platforms are global, with revenues greater than many countries’ national GDPs.

Recently, we have even seen examples of political weaponisation of these companies - with the Donald Trump administration threatening to sanction European countries regulating US Big Tech. In this context, Europe must stand united to defend not only our rule of law but ultimately our children. 

Today, there is no unified approach in Europe to protect children against harmful online content and exploitative business models.

Instead, we have a patchwork of national solutions, age barriers and control systems. This makes it harder to hold tech giants accountable.

The EU’s Digital Services Act has been a crucial first step placing hard requirements on online platforms to protect users. However, there is still a long way to go.  

It is time for European leaders to act - and as Scandinavian Social Democrats, we are ready to lead the way.

We want a strong and unified approach on our continent to take on the battle for a responsible digital world and to defend every child’s right to a safe childhood. Free from addictive algorithms designed to serve foreign commercial purposes and experimental digital trials. 

This is why we call for European unity for a social media limit at 15 years old.

We would never accept a physical product knowingly designed to make children addicted or ill. This is why we introduced seat belts in cars and set age limits on alcohol.

Yet today, many children spend hours every day in a digital world stacked against them, with well-documented harms as a result. For this generation - this is where we need to draw a line. In Europe we face a choice: to build a digital world that serves children, or one that exploits them.

As Social Democrats, our choice is clear.  

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