Greece Presents Social Media Ban for Under-15s
Key Takeaways
Greece presented a regulatory framework on October 12th banning children under 15 from social media platforms.
The legislation takes effect January 1st, 2027, subject to a parliamentary vote scheduled for October 22nd.
Greece is building enforcement on the EU's Digital Services Act, using existing DSA oversight and sanction mechanisms.
The ban covers social networks only, not general internet use or other technology.
Greece's government presented a new regulatory framework banning children under 15 from accessing social media platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Instagram. The legislation will take effect on January 1st, 2027, subject to a parliamentary vote scheduled for October 22nd.
The framework is built on the EU's Digital Services Act rather than standalone national enforcement infrastructure — meaning violations will trigger DSA oversight and sanction mechanisms rather than a separate Greek enforcement regime. That's a different approach from Türkiye’s e-Devlet token system published this week as well, where verification runs directly through the government's own identity portal. Greece's model delegates enforcement to existing EU channels.
The ban covers social networks only, not general internet use or other technology. Platforms not initially named will be added gradually. Greece's Minister for the Coordination of Government Policies, Akis Skertsos, framed it as a "human-centric approach" to technology regulation focused on children's health and development.
Greece has been moving in this direction for some time. It banned mobile phones in schools in 2024 and has already developed a Kids Wallet App that allows parents to store a child's digital identity and restrict app and online service access on their device. The new social media rules extend that logic from device-level controls to platform-level access.
The January 2027 date puts Greece in roughly the same implementation window as Türkiye’s November 1st deadline, the EU KIDS Act framework announced back in September, and similar measures advancing in Austria, Denmark, France, Spain, and Canada. The week that began with Türkiye’s law being published is becoming a useful illustration of how quickly the age restriction wave is moving from announcement to enforcement calendar.
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Gintarė is a cybersecurity writer at Mysterium VPN, where she explores online privacy, VPN technology, and the latest digital threats in editorial pieces. With hands-on experience researching and writing about data protection and digital freedom, Gintarė makes complex security topics accessible and actionable.
