Denmark Bans Social Media for Kids Under 15
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| Credit: Gregor Fischer/Getty Images |
Denmark is the latest country to take aim at Big Tech, announcing plans Friday to ban social media access for users under 15.
As reported by the Associated Press, the measure won’t take effect immediately, but the details of how the ban will be enforced remain unclear. Denmark reportedly plans to roll out an official age-verification app as part of the enforcement system, and would allow parents to grant access to children as young as 13 following an assessment process.
The move puts Denmark in line with a growing list of countries introducing similar measures as concerns over social media’s impact on youth mental health continue to mount. Australia has become the first nation to implement a social media ban for minors, which is set to take effect this December. That ban would have platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Reddit on the hook for fines of up to $50 million AUD ($33 million USD) if they fail to comply.
In the U.S., there’s no nationwide restriction, but several states have enacted or proposed legislation limiting social media use among minors. Those laws vary widely — Nebraska, for instance, requires parental approval for anyone under 18 to open an account — and many are now being challenged in court over First Amendment concerns.
If Denmark’s plan proceeds smoothly, it could redefine the balance of power between governments and Big Tech companies like Meta, opening a new front in the global battle over who bears responsibility for verifying users’ ages — platforms, parents, or app stores.
Topics Social Media
Very good idea but how are they gping to monitor it?
ReplyDeletePerfect
ReplyDeleteHow are they going to police that I wonder?
ReplyDeleteDenmark is right
ReplyDeleteOf course other countries would do stupid shit like this. Age verification needs to get lost
ReplyDeleteSounds like Denmark isn't a parent. Forbiding a kid from something just makes it go underground. Denmark should make it "played out" by getting on socials, adding said kids, and imitating them
ReplyDeleteBut doing nothing to prevent the elderly from going on Facebook? That’s like mopping the floor while the faucet’s still running.
ReplyDeleteCan we ban it for humans under the age of 100?
ReplyDeleteStop violating people's privacy and parent your kids.
ReplyDeleteDenmark to require adults to identify themselves on social media websites.
ReplyDeleteGreat! It's about time social media should be seen as a public space and what you do in it should expose you.
DeleteYou can't stand in the street and be racist, abusive or hateful etc.. Why should you be able to freely on the Internet. Your identity should be known.
Denmark is wrong.
ReplyDeleteI hate this braindead focus on children. As if adults aren't brainwashed by the hordes
ReplyDeleteThe children are the feature to sell the product: government ID assigned to every internet user. This is how you end up with a global social credit score.
DeleteWill they also ban social media for anyone over 65?
ReplyDeleteAlso anyone 65 and under please. Just firewall that garbage at the border. It's soul cancer.
DeleteSo chat control will be useless in that case, right? RIGHT???
ReplyDeleteDenmark is basically rewriting their constitution over the past couple of years… so much new laws
ReplyDeleteGood idea - social media is very bad for your health.
ReplyDeleteWhen i am in denmark and this ban happeneded, i would use a vpn
ReplyDeleteHey, another law that is impossible to enforce. Did governments really look at the UK and think, oh that's great?
ReplyDeleteTech illiterate governments...
(Don't get me wrong, I think kids and social media is a bad fit, but these kind of things solve absolutely nothing.)
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DeleteRight, I didn’t consider turning every country into North Korea would be an option, but yeah technically it is possible.
DeleteThere is no way to enforce it without closing off the internet to all other countries or blocking vpn’s.
This is a great decision, and it's encouraging that a country like Denmark is among the first to make this move. They have the technological infrastructure to implement reasonably solid checks, and a relatively stable government to enforce them. I also get the impression that people in Denmark actually want this, which is helpful. I hope it is enforced by a governing body rather than left solely to the tech companies. The UK has done something similar with porn, and that seems to be working fairly well as a safeguard.
ReplyDeleteAlternative headline: Denmark will use incredibly invasive methods in destined to fail attempt to try to keep anyone under 15 away from social media platforms.
ReplyDeleteRemember when we were kids and followed the train tracks into the woods where we found the stash of social media?
DeleteBan it for everyone of all ages please.
ReplyDeleteWe need governments to stop parenting. Stop telling parents what their kids can do on the Internet, stop telling parents their kids can't walk home by themselves, or be outside at certain times, or what they can and can't watch. That is a parents choice.
ReplyDeleteMark?
DeleteWho tf is Mark
DeleteAh, ok, "not" Mark 😉.
DeleteHonestly, it should go all the way globally. We don’t need whatever social media currently is. Maybe one day we can, but based on our current timeline, It does more damage than good best to say we don’t need it all.
ReplyDeleteThey just need to make it illegal to sell phones and phone plans to those under 18. Easier and would do so much better on this front.
ReplyDeleteNo child should have a computer in the palm of their hands until they're an adult. Full stop.
Y'all probably need to ban social media for for me too
ReplyDeleteThats good news
ReplyDeleteStupid. Where the parents?
ReplyDeleteThis isn't actually about "protecting the children", it's just another step setting up a full on surveillance state.
DeleteSame question. Where the parents?
DeleteAt work paying for grossly overinflated house and grocery and utility costs.
DeleteI'm in the EU, so there's a chance this decision will spread towards my country.... If social media starts asking ME for an ID , then social media is dead to me !
ReplyDeleteI was never asked for an ID to buy cigarettes , now fucking Zucc wants my ID uploaded on their servers ?!
No, I think this will just be one step closer to the big social media exit ...
They will use the same system that Danish people use to login to banks and many other private services. It's not going to be any different.
Delete"I was never asked for an ID to buy cigarettes"
Maybe you look really old
This will likely end up in EU courts.
DeleteSmartest move any country has made for a while.
ReplyDeleteThis is from the same idiots pushing for Chat Control.
DeleteIncorrect title, it should be: Denmark to ban social medial for all, access is going to require a gov approval.
ReplyDeleteSo social Media in Denmark doesn’t need to do anything in terms of child protection etc because according to local law there are no kids on there?
ReplyDeleteHow? And if the answer is BankID then fuck off!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThis is to lock down the internet, creating a database business and politicians and hackers and others can access by hook or crook, connecting names and likenesses to every ip, as well as programs to identify people on how they use computers.
Anyone suppirting this is a weak minded fool causing far more damage to the youth and everyone in the long run. All powerful all knowing governments and oligarchs never ends well no matter how much you might trust your government now.
A government trying to read every electronic message on the continent without cause I would add, if one gave them the benefit of the doubt.
Should be standard.
ReplyDeleteInternet is designed specifically to rot a young brain. No smart phones until high school or so
While this is 'but think of the children!' narrative, forcing age checks on ALL users is less about the children and more about compliance and control.
ReplyDeleteThey want to tie everything you do, say, watch or repeat on the internet to individuals so they can be targeted and sanctioned at some arbitrary time in the future.
Don't fall for it, it is halfway down the slope to totalian regimes.
Exactly. It’s just like how the government came for your children when they required proof of age for purchasing alcohol, or getting a licence to drive a car, amirite??
DeleteBruh, the only way to enforce this is to track everyone. All social media activities, anything that requires you make a user account, anything that is age restricted, will be tied to your government profile, facilitated and administered by private companies. This its the death of internet anonymity. Any time you complain about a politician or government, its logged. Companies will inevitably get access to it, either from leaks or because our digital privacy laws are obsolete, or because they manage the data. That will affect hiring and firing. They implemented something like this in the UK, and identity theft increased massively because of fake verification pages. It denies young people access to information the government finds ‘inappropriate’, by a standard set by the government, which might mean news, evidence of governmental wrongdoing, forums for discussion and organization, and so on. And we don’t even have the capacity or capability to properly enforce the current online safety laws on the books. Actually doing this would be a massively expensive infrastructure project, wouldn’t address the problems that is being used to justify it, will push people towards less safe digital platforms, and is a totalitarian government’s wet dream. Its bad.
DeleteThose don't involve people's private interests, thoughts and communications.
DeleteExactly.
Deletehttps://www.statewatch.org/analyses/2025/behind-closed-doors-europol-s-opaque-relations-with-tech-companies/
They want everyone and everything on everyone.
It was supposed to be no under 13 already but tons of kids are sub 10 on it
ReplyDeletethis is just done to tie everyone's identity to everything they do online
ReplyDeleteOr to stop kids feeling like a pos because they don't look like a photoshopped celebrity
DeleteYeah. Especially because those social media platforms are so good at tracking people, if you wanted to lock down the identities of people online, these platforms would be ideal to log into.
DeleteThis is bad. It has nothing to do with protecting children, they are trying to remove anonymity from the internet.
ReplyDeleteYou're right - it should be banned for everybody. That's how we don't even need any ID.
DeleteSo if my child signed up to TikTok, their anonymity would be preserved??
DeleteGet real.
Then TikTok should be regulated, not every user of the app.
DeletePeople like to think that cookies don’t connect them across the web. It might not be tied to your name, but might as well be
Delete
DeleteJust like with anything else like this it’s nuanced.
Boomers can’t even handle Facebook.
We have no idea what the actual lasting effects of social media has on young people.
But the psychological effects of chasing likes and not getting engagement is pretty clear.
If you’re commenting on here in the first place you’d understand that well enough.
All social media is performative to some degree.
We learn to do it in order to get engagement.
What fucking anonymity? Some people really think these billion or even trillion dollar corporations don't know who you are, they know when you take a shit.
DeleteSocial Media has become an extremely dangerous weapon, it ruins lives and it damages kids, it's only right to protect them from all this garbage.
It's not that they don't know.
DeleteIt's that demanding ID removes the possiblity of plausible deniability & makes the account owner solely responsible for what's being posted.
If they already know who you are then governments wouldn't need you to submit ID.
DeleteIt's about time. Anonymity has spoiled the Internet
DeleteNot only are you posting anonymously on social media, you've also taken the additional step of hiding your comment history here.
DeleteAnd I would trade that in a second to have a world where everyone had to stand behind what they said
DeleteI mean you could live by your own standards. What's your full name? Address?
DeleteCool and then there is no way for people to leak information or just talk badly under authoritarians who will murder you.
Delete😂😂😂😂😂
DeleteInformation "leaked" by unverified anonymous internet accounts is completely invalid.
And authoritarians can already very easily track anonymous internet accounts.
Whatever you need to tell yourself since you love the feeling of an authority figure up your ass.
DeleteIf you can't see how the authoritarian regime has leveraged social media manipulation to completely dismantle democracy then you're stupid as fuck.
DeleteBut hey at least you get to say slurs on the internet
That would make people double down on being awful. Anonymity lets people change their minds without feeling tied to what they said in the past.
DeleteIt absolutely will not
Deletehttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1359178923000435?
The science is super clear on this.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Deleteand so on
Ah yes. Social media is soooo great with half of all engagement coming from bots. It's so normal and not destroying the fabric of democracy at all.
DeleteI'm not a bot! 😅
DeleteSoical Media companies have had years to get their shit together but because that would eat into their profit they have spent tens of millions lobbying the US Government so they are free of any consequences.
ReplyDeleteFacebook, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube etc have become haveans for the worst people in society who pray on children and the vulnerable.
They have become tools for extreme political parties and religious organisations to recruit and brainwash those who are vulnerable.
To make matters worse the likes of Facebook and Google have embraced this by designing their algorithms to hook people in.
As a parent I have tried to teach my kids and give them as much knowledge as I can so they can better protect themselves however there are tens of millions of kids and adults around the world that do not have a support network and become lost in the rabbit hole.
Since the likes of Google and Facebook refuse to moderate and even help law enforcement when it comes to stopping pedophiles and others who pray on children and the vulnerable then yes, Governments need to step in.
In 2020 Facebook was responsible for 94% of the 69 million CSAM images reported by US Tech Firms.
In 2023 nearly 36 million reported cases of CSAM images nearly 85% stemmed from meta platforms.
Facebook is notorious for taking months or not revoming CSAM images and even more so for not working with Law Enforcement Agencies in tracking those who upload these images.
Unfortunately until the US Government decides to stop protecting these companies the only real alternative left to Governments around the world is to introduce restrictions.
If these do not have the effect that is desired then I can see a time where they are outright banned.
Perhaps that is what it will take for these companies to get serious about battling those who upload CSAM and pray on children and the vulnerable.
"even more so for not working with Law Enforcement Agencies in tracking those who upload these images."
DeleteIf you are referring to the anti-encryption extremists complaining about Facebook implementing proper end to end encryption, then that's not a solvable problem.
No, just passing on whatever information they may have on those uploading CSAM and they don't even do that.
DeleteRight.. are you over 15? Yes
ReplyDeleteThe noose is tightening. More and more bans at every turn, more and more governments and corporations want to know. It will only get worse.
ReplyDeleteDigital ID... Look at China - everything is heading in this direction.
(I would rather ban social media at all, for everybody - except Youtube).
Europol is pushing exactly in that direction - https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/1oqys3y/behind_closed_doors_europols_opaque_relations/
DeleteBan all social media for everyone... except the one that I like!
DeleteExcept the one that is useful and does not negatively affect the psyche of users (yes, YouTube is an exception in this regard).
DeleteYoutube, as it exists today, absolutely can negatively affect the psyche of users, as can anything with the "feed" functionality promoting further content based on your usage profile and top-down parameters from the provider.
DeleteYou are in denial. The noose isn’t tightening, it’s pushing children away from adult material.
DeleteYeah, sure. Always the same excuse. Why now then, not 20 years ago?
DeleteYou're absolutely right that the social media should have been banned 20 years ago, but the next best moment is now.
DeleteThat why everyone needs to push back on this.
DeleteNobody needs to push back against banning kids from using social media. 😂
Delete