Spain Aims to Ban Social Media for Children Under 16, Prime Minister Says

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of Spain on Tuesday announced plans to bar anyone under the age of 16 from accessing social media, the latest in a global push to shield children from potential harm caused by online platforms.

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Mr. Sánchez said the ban, which needs parliamentary approval, would be part of a series of legislative and regulatory measures pushed by his Socialist-led government. That includes an effort to make company executives legally responsible if illegal or hate-related content is not removed from their platforms, and to criminalize the manipulation of algorithms and the amplification of illegal content.

The goal is to reassert democratic control over social media, Mr. Sánchez said, and to rein in major digital platforms “where laws are ignored, and crimes are tolerated.”

Mr. Sánchez’s announcements echoed growing worries around the world about the impact of social media on children, and it underscored the differences between Europe and the United States on how to define free speech and regulate online platforms.

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Mr. Sánchez said on Tuesday that the measures, including the proposed social media ban, would be put into a bill as early as next week.

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A spokesman for Spain’s ministry of youth and childhood said the social media ban would be implemented as part of a bill on the protection of minors in digital environments that lawmakers are already discussing.

The bill, which was introduced last year, would raise to 16 the age at which minors can consent to the processing of their personal data — and therefore the age at which they can use social media platforms, the spokesman said. Minors under that age would only be able to access such content with the permission of their legal guardian.

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More than 90 percent of Spanish teenagers engage with at least one social network, and one in 10 minors in Spain have experienced cyberbullying, according to a study published in November that was conducted by several organizations, including UNICEF Spain.

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Mr. Sánchez also said on Tuesday that his government would create a tracking system to quantify and trace what it calls an online “footprint of hate and polarization.” He said Spain had joined five other European countries in a new alliance, the “coalition of the digitally willing” aimed at coordinating faster and stricter enforcement of social media rules across borders, although he did name other alliance members.

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