{"id":57063,"date":"2026-02-03T14:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/spain-to-ban-social-media-for-children-under-16\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T14:05:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T14:05:30","slug":"spain-to-ban-social-media-for-children-under-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/spain-to-ban-social-media-for-children-under-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain to ban social media for children under 16"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, S\u00e1nchez said the move was aimed at protecting young people from the harmful effects of online content, including hate speech, pornography, disinformation and online abuse. Social media companies will also be required to implement robust age-verification systems to enforce the ban.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone,\u201d S\u00e1nchez said. \u201cWe will no longer accept that. We will protect them from the digital Wild West.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The prime minister said his left-wing coalition government has grown increasingly concerned about the impact of social media on minors, warning that risks such as addiction, manipulation and violence \u201ccannot be accepted.\u201d He stressed that age checks must be \u201creal barriers that work,\u201d not simple box-ticking exercises.<\/p>\n<p>Spain\u2019s announcement follows a similar move by Australia, which in December became the first country to ban social media access for under-16s. The decision is being closely watched by other European nations, including Britain and France, which are considering comparable age-based restrictions. In France, lawmakers are finalising rules to curb access for children under 15.<\/p>\n<p>S\u00e1nchez also revealed plans to introduce a separate bill that would hold social media executives legally accountable for illegal and hate content hosted on their platforms. The proposed measures include criminalising algorithmic manipulation and the amplification of unlawful content, as well as establishing systems to track hate speech online.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, prosecutors will explore potential legal infractions linked to platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Elon Musk\u2019s AI tool Grok, S\u00e1nchez said, citing concerns over disinformation and other alleged abuses.<\/p>\n<p>The Spanish leader said the challenge of regulating social media extends beyond national borders. Spain has joined five other European countries in what he called a \u201cCoalition of the Digitally Willing,\u201d aimed at coordinating cross-border digital regulation. The group is expected to hold its first meeting in the coming days, though S\u00e1nchez did not name the participating countries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know this is a battle that goes far beyond the boundaries of any one country,\u201d he said, calling for broader European cooperation to rein in the power of global technology platforms.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-101557 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1370225_0.jpeg.jpg\" alt=\"Spain plans to ban children under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms as part of a sweeping effort to create a safer digital environment, Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez announced on Tuesday. The legislation is expected to be introduced as early as next week.\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spain plans to ban children under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms as part of a sweeping effort to create a safer digital environment, Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez announced on Tuesday. The legislation is expected to be introduced as early as next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":2000101556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[201],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-57063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-rania-umutoni"],"bylines":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":139}],"contributors":[{"id":201,"name":"Rania Umutoni","slug":"rania-umutoni","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":139}],"featured_image":{"id":2000101556,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/1370225_0.jpeg.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/1370225_0.jpeg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/1370225_0.jpeg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/1370225_0.jpeg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/1370225_0.jpeg.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/1370225_0.jpeg.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000101556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57063"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=57063"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=57063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}