Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez imposed a ban during the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Tuesday announced for social media users under the age of sixteen. “We want to protect them from the digital Wild West,” he said in his speech, in which he spoke about the dangers of social media.
In his speech, Sánchez assured that Spain will require these digital platforms to introduce age verification. The measure is included in it bill on the protection of minors in digital environments, which is currently being discussed in Congress.
Spain also wants to introduce a change in the law that would make the directors of social media companies criminally liable for violations that occur on their platforms. For example, for not removing illegal or hateful content.
Manipulating algorithms and amplifying illegal content will be classified as a crime, according to the Prime Minister. His government wants to investigate, together with the Public Prosecution Service, how possible violations of the law by Grok (the chatbot that is fed with data from X), TikTok and Instagram can be investigated. He refers to the recent distribution of AI porn and sexualized images of women and children by Grok, into which the European Commission has already opened an investigation.
Last year, Sánchez dedicated his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the dangers of social media were largely discussed. He mentioned, among other things, cyberbullying, hate speech, foreign interference, the polarization of public debate and a “terrible increase in fear, violence and loneliness”.
Australia became the first country to ban social media for under-16s in December. Social media companies risk fines of up to 30 million euros if they do not take sufficient measures to keep minors off their platforms.
A similar age limit was introduced in France last week and is also included in the coalition agreement that CDA, VVD and D66 presented on Friday. Other European countries are also working on such a ban.
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