CHILDREN -EUROPEAN INTERNET- CHISELING : MASTER PRECIS

EFFORTS in France, Greece, Denmark and Spain to explore minimum ages for social media, following in the footsteps of Australia, where a large barring under-16s from social media took hold in late 2025.

'' There is no reason our children should be exposed online to what is legally forbidden in the real world,'' Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, said in a speech this year.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the E.U.'s executive arm, recently convened a panel of experts to advise on whether Europe-wide social media age restrictions for children might make sense.

Like that conversation, many of Europe's social media restrictions are still in development.

If age restrictions do take hold, they will probably be backed by E.U. technology. The block is working on a digital identity wallet that would allow websites to easily check how old users are before allowing them in.

The World Students Society thanks Jeanna Smialek.