The European Commission on Wednesday said it is ultimately up to national governments to block minors from social media, leaving the door open for France to ban under-15s.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron late on Tuesday said France “can’t wait” any longer in banning social media for children under 15, in response to a fatal stabbing of a teaching assistant at a high school in Paris’ suburbs.
The president has called for a social media ban before. On Tuesday, he dialed up pressure on European Union officials and other EU countries to design an EU-wide system to check the age of social media users, saying: “I’m giving us a few months to achieve European mobilization. Otherwise, I will negotiate with the Europeans so that we can do it ourselves in France.”
The response from Brussels? It’s your call, Mr. President.
“Let’s be clear … [a] wide social media ban is not what the European Commission is doing. It’s not where we are heading to. Why? Because this is the prerogative of our member states,” Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters Wednesday.
EU countries can set a digital age of majority under the EU’s landmark privacy regulation, the General Data Protection Regulation, said Regnier. “Of course, member states can go for that option,” Regnier said.
Under the GDPR, EU countries can set the minimum users age for platforms to process their data, provided it is over 13. But data can still be processed if parents give their consent, the law says.
Adding to France’s woes is that, without a technical way to man the gates, these measures have proven ineffective. In Denmark, almost half of kids under 10 have social media accounts and almost all have signed up for social media by the age of 13, the country’s Digital Minister Caroline Stage Olsen said last week.
However, requirements on social media platforms to protect minors are also covered by the Digital Services Act, a regulation that centralizes supervisory powers for major platforms at the hands of the Commission.
“We want to make the digital space safe but also need to tackle risks coming from it. This is where the DSA comes into place,” Regnier said.
The EU executive has been working on EU-wide guidelines for how platforms can comply with the DSA on minors’ protection, to be finalized before the summer break. The Commission is also working on an age verification app to be trialed by five countries, including France.
France and other EU countries appear unhappy with the Commission’s pace. Denmark, which will chair meetings of the Council of the EU from July to December, is also planning to fast-track discussions about minor protections online in coming months.
The post You do you, EU tells Macron on banning social media for kids appeared first on Politico.
