Report from Politico
In Brief – Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said that her government wants to ban children from under the age of 15 from several social media platforms. “Mobile phones and social media are stealing our children’s childhood,” she said in her opening speech to the Danish parliament. A bill setting an age limit for social media in Denmark was not on the government’s legislative program for the upcoming parliamentary year when she made the announcement, and the Prime Minister did not give many details, but she did say that she believed Danish parents should be able to give their children permission to create accounts from the age of 13. The Danish government is also pushing the EU to require digital platforms firms to verify the age of their users.
Context – As more governments worldwide propose online age limits, Australia’s landmark 16-year-old threshold for social media, which does not allow for parental exemptions, provides insight into how age checks proliferate. The “social media” age limit is evolving to cover platforms with social features, such as many gaming sites. Australia also has new rules going into effect in December to limit minors’ access to harmful but legal content by age, including online porn and AI chatbots capable of sexually explicit dialogue, which is bringing age checks to search engines in the country. In Europe, France is imposing age checks on porn sites, the Commission has announced a five-country pilot of an age verification app, which includes Denmark, as well as exploring adding age check functionalities to the planned Digital Identity (eID) Wallet. And President von der Leyen says that the Commission will explore a social media age limit for the entire EU. The UK Online Safety Act is being used to require age verification along a similar rubric of porn, social media, and game sites with social features. In the US, the Supreme Court ruled that age checks were acceptable for porn sites and states are rapidly attempting to expand them to social media. The justices have allowed Mississippi’s age limit to remain in effect as judges examine its constitutionality.