Greece Bans Under-15s From Social Media, and the Hard Part Starts Now

Greece's parliament passed legislation banning children under 15 from social media platforms, with the ban taking effect on January 1, 2027. The ruling centre-right New Democracy party carried the bill on its parliamentary majority. No other party backed it: the main opposition PASOK abstained, while SYRIZA, Greek Solution, KKE, Niki and Freedom Course voted against. The debate began Thursday and ran into Friday.

The law requires social networks to verify users' ages and imposes harsh penalties for non-compliance. Platforms carry that burden. According to reports, verification would run through a system using a digital token to confirm eligibility without revealing users' identities. The measure does not ban broader internet access, so children can still reach educational resources and digital communication services.

The ban covers major platforms including Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, and other platforms could be added. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced plans for the ban in April, explaining it on TikTok, and said platforms have two and a half months to devise age verification while protecting users' privacy. Minister of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence Dimitris Papastergiou called the step "necessary, effective, proportionate and EU-law-compliant," and said platforms would have until the first of the year to determine whether their accounts and services are intended for adults.

Other countries and regulators weighing how far platforms must go to protect minors, including Irish regulators, can study it. For platforms, the work lands on engineering teams, identity vendors and app developers, who must build reliable age verification at the scale of TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X.

The law also tests two propositions at once: whether age verification can be done without compromising user privacy, and whether a single country's rules can be enforced against global platforms.