"As a person born in the 90s, social media was once an unknown land for me, a place that felt genuine in the beginning. It still had dangers, but it seemed less risky, or maybe our parents' rules were stricter. I don't want to go down the psychological path here, but I want to look at where we are headed with so much risk, especially on social media platforms."
"If we take the big picture, this isn't just another regulation. It reflects a deeper shift in how democracies are responding to the pervasive presence of social media in young lives, and how they judge its long-term impact. From soft law to hard proposals In late 2025, the European Parliament adopted a resolution urging a minimum age of 16 to access social media and related services, while allowing 13- to 16-year-olds in with parental consent."
"I will not add up that there are parents that creates profiles for their children since they were born. To make my point, according to , content shared by family members has been misused for harmful purposes, including redistribution on networks used for abusive content. It estimates that a significant portion of photos and videos found on paedo-criminal forums were initially published by parents on social media."
The start of 2026 shows accelerating change in technology, regulation, and information management. Debates have shifted from general digital-safety concerns to concrete proposals imposing age-based access limits and platform design constraints. The European Parliament adopted a late-2025 resolution urging a minimum access age of 16 while permitting 13–16-year-olds with parental consent. Family-shared content has been misused, and a notable share of images and videos on paedo-criminal forums originated from parents' social posts. The resolution targets addictive design features and requests defaults like disabling infinite scroll and autoplay. These proposals are not yet legally binding but indicate a broader democratic reassessment of youth protection and freedoms.
Read at TNW | Opinion
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