“Beyond Blocking Access to Targeting Addiction”: Countries Tighten Youth Social Media Rules as Big Tech’s Legal Liability Comes Under Scrutiny

Youth social media restrictions spread as Greece passes legislation banning use by children under 15
Researchers identify links between addictive social media use, repeated short-form viewing and worsening mental health
Lawsuits against platforms including TikTok mount, broadening debate to regulation of addictive algorithms

Greece is banning social media use by children under 15. As concerns grow over the effects of addiction and exposure to harmful content on young people’s mental health, moves to impose statutory restrictions on minors’ access to social media are spreading worldwide. In particular, a growing body of recent research suggests that addictive usage patterns and repeated consumption of short-form content are more closely linked to mental health than time spent alone, bringing increasing attention to the need to regulate addictive design features themselves, including recommendation algorithms and infinite scrolling.

Greece’s Social Media Restrictions

According to Reuters on the 24th (all dates hereafter are local time), the Greek parliament passed legislation the previous day banning social media use by children under 15 starting January 1 next year. The legislation centers on requiring social media platforms to verify users’ ages and imposing stiff penalties on companies that fail to comply. Commenting on the measure, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed, “The addictive design of some apps and business models that monetize users’ attention must now come to an end.”

Such moves to restrict young people’s social media use by law are spreading worldwide. Most notably, on December 10 last year, Australia became the first country to implement a law banning children under 16 from using major social media services. The law requires major platform operators, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube, to prevent users under 16 from holding accounts, with fines of up to AUD 49.5 million (approximately USD 35.4 million) for companies that fail to comply adequately.

Similar Restrictions Spread Worldwide

Similar restrictions are also being introduced in Southeast Asia. On March 6, the Indonesian government announced rules restricting access to social media for children under 16 and began phasing out accounts held by users in that age group on high-risk platforms on March 28. The restrictions cover not only major social media services such as TikTok, Facebook and Instagram, but also the online gaming platform Roblox. Malaysia likewise announced plans last November to ban social media use by children under 16 and began fully implementing restrictions on new account registrations by users in that age group in June.

A trend toward tighter regulation is also emerging in the Middle East. In April, Türkiye’s parliament passed legislation banning social media use by children under 15. The legislation also imposes new obligations on digital platform operators beyond social media, including online game software companies. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government also approved a resolution in June setting the minimum age for social media use at 15. Accordingly, children under 15 in the UAE are prohibited from opening and using personal social media accounts, and users in that age group are also restricted from accessing platforms’ full functionality.

Table 1. Youth Social Media Restrictions Around the World

EU Also Accelerates Efforts to Establish Institutional Safeguards

Legislative efforts to restrict young people’s social media use are also continuing within the European Union (EU). In February, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced plans to bar children under 16 from using social media, while the Danish government reached an agreement with major political parties last November on banning social media use by children under 15. Austria’s government also reached a political agreement in March to restrict social media use by children under 14 and is working to define its age-verification system and the scope of platforms subject to regulation. Portugal has begun drafting legislation requiring parental consent for social media use by children under 16, while countries including Italy and Slovenia are discussing proposals to raise the minimum age for minors to access social media. France also passed legislation imposing an outright ban on social media account creation by children under 15, but implementation has been temporarily halted by a ruling that it is unconstitutional.

Common EU-wide rules are also being developed. Last month, the European Commission announced plans to pursue an “EU Kids Act” that would completely ban social media use by children under 13 across all 27 member states. It is also developing an age-verification system that would allow users to prove they are adults without directly providing personal information to platforms. The measures are seen as intended to complement existing obligations to protect minors under the Digital Services Act (DSA) and reduce potential enforcement confusion arising from differences in individual member states’ regulations.

Social Media’s Impact on Mental Health

Countries around the world are restricting young people’s social media use because of growing recognition that it can negatively affect their mental health. Numerous academic studies have examined the issue. For example, researchers at Imperial College London analyzed longitudinal data collected between 2014 and 2018 from 2,350 students at 31 schools in London and identified a link between time spent on social media and adolescent mental health. The team compared students’ digital device habits and mental health when they were aged 11–12 and 13–15, finding that children who used social media for 3 hours or more a day were more likely to show symptoms of anxiety and depression than those who used it for 30 minutes or less. The association with depressive symptoms was particularly pronounced among girls.

Professor Silja Kosola of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Helsinki in Finland also analyzed the effects of addictive social media design on young people’s mental health in a paper published in the international journal PLOS Medicine. According to the paper, adolescents are vulnerable to short-form videos and notifications that offer immediate rewards because the limbic system, which processes emotions and rewards, develops earlier than the frontal cortex, which governs impulse control. Excessive social media use is also associated with reduced sleep and physical activity, anxiety symptoms and body dissatisfaction, while personalized algorithms can lead to repeated social comparison. The researchers therefore recommended going beyond age restrictions to regulate platform design itself, including infinite scrolling and recommendation algorithms that encourage addiction.

Risks of Short-Form Content Also Draw Attention

Recent studies have increasingly focused on the risks of so-called “short-form addiction,” involving repeated viewing of short videos on services such as TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. According to a paper published in March in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, researchers from institutions including the Chinese University of Hong Kong pooled data on 96,676 participants from 58 previous studies and identified significant correlations between short-form content use and indicators of worsening mental health, including depression, anxiety and stress. In particular, they found that addictive usage patterns involving an inability to control one’s own use were more closely associated with worsening mental health than time spent alone. A meta-analysis published last September in Psychological Bulletin, a journal of the American Psychological Association (APA), raised similar concerns. An analysis of data from 98,299 participants across 71 studies found that higher levels of short-form content use were associated with lower overall cognitive functioning, with relatively strong correlations involving attention and impulse inhibition.

Meanwhile, legal disputes over the addictive design of short-form platforms are expanding in countries including the United States. On October 8, 2024, attorneys general from 14 U.S. states, including California and New York, filed separate lawsuits alleging that TikTok encouraged excessive use among young people and harmed their mental health. They argued that TikTok used addictive features to hold users’ attention for extended periods while misleading consumers by overstating the platform’s safety. Damages lawsuits brought by young users have also followed. According to Reuters on January 27, TikTok reached a settlement just before trial with K.G.M., a 19-year-old woman from California who alleged that social media addiction during childhood had caused depression and suicidal thoughts. In June, the company also agreed in principle to a settlement with R.K.C., a 15-year-old from Florida who alleged experiencing sleep deprivation, depression and anxiety after beginning to use social media at around age 8. In August, it agreed to settle 3 additional damages lawsuits concerning harm to young people’s mental health.