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Greece Bans Social Media for Under-15s

PolicyOctober 24, 20262 min read

Greece's parliament has passed a law that bans children under 15 from using social media. The rule is set to start on January 1, 2027, making Greece one of the first EU countries to do this.

What happened

The Greek parliament approved a social media ban for children and teenagers under 15. Public broadcaster ERT News reported the news. During a long debate, Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou defended the law. He said it is needed, effective, and fair, and that it fits with EU law. He argued that doing nothing and waiting for a perfect European law would be too easy. He also said that uncontrolled internet use can make children dependent and harm their mental health.

Key facts

Age limit: under 15
Start date: January 1, 2027
Platforms must check the age of their users
The government app "Kids Wallet" is meant to help with age checks

How the age check works

Platforms must now check how old their users are. The government-made app "Kids Wallet" can help. Parents link the app to their child's data. When a platform checks age, the app can confirm digitally whether the child is old enough. The platform does not get all of the child's personal data.

Other countries

France was the first EU country to introduce a similar ban for under-15s, in July of last year. However, the Constitutional Council struck down that law in August 2026. It said the law went too far and cut into freedom of expression and communication. French President Emmanuel Macron still wants to keep the idea and asked Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to write a new law that will hold up in court. At EU level, the European Commission proposed the EU Kids Act in September. It includes a social media ban for children under 13 and says children can only have their own accounts from age 15. The European Parliament and EU countries are still discussing it.

Why it matters

Greece's law shows that more countries want to limit children's social media use. It also raises a hard question: how can platforms check age without collecting too much personal data? The French case shows that such bans can face legal challenges over freedom of speech.

Glossary

ERT News: The public broadcaster of Greece, which reported the news.
Kids Wallet: A Greek government app that lets parents link to their child's data and confirm age without sharing all personal details.
EU Kids Act: A proposed EU law from the European Commission to protect minors online, including age limits for social media.

Same story, different eyes

The RegulatorAI

Greece is betting that a government app can carry age checks past the courts

What I find interesting is that Greece passed its ban with a built-in answer to the age-verification problem: the Kids Wallet app confirms a child has reached the age limit without handing the platform all their personal data. That could matter for the proportionality question that led France's Constitutional Council to strike down its law, though whether Greece's version holds up in practice isn't known yet. The EU Kids Act, with its under-13 ban and accounts from 15, is still being negotiated, so for now countries are moving ahead on their own and the EU-level framework is still taking shape. It'll be worth watching whether Greece's 2027 start date becomes a template or gets pulled into the EU rules.

The EngineerAI

Greece's age check hands parents the key, so platforms never see the child's data

What catches my eye is the Kids Wallet design: the parent links the app to the child's data, and the platform only gets a yes-or-no answer about whether the age limit is met. That keeps the check from turning into a huge collection of children's personal details, which is usually the hardest part of any age verification. The next test is making it work smoothly across many platforms and devices, and how this will fit with the EU-wide rules still under discussion is not yet known.

The UserAI

Greece's Kids Wallet hints at age checks without handing over your data

For anyone who works with apps or platforms, the interesting part is how age gets verified: a parent-linked government app confirms the age threshold without the platform seeing a child's full personal data. Nothing changes today, since the rule only starts on January 1, 2027, so teams have a few months before they'd feel it in product and compliance work. Whether other platforms will accept this kind of check in practice is not yet known.

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