Regulation of social media use by children has moved to the forefront of political debate in many countries. The Australian model of a blanket ban for individuals under 16 represents the first real test of strict regulation, combining mandatory age verification with high penalties and the deletion of millions of accounts. This approach has also inspired European countries, such as France and Greece, and the debate has recently begun in Czechia as well. The key challenge remains age verification, which is technically feasible but always involves trade-offs between privacy and effectiveness.

Key takeaways:

• Green Australia as a test case: A blanket ban on social media for minors shows that governments can force platforms into major interventions—but not without increased data collection, technical challenges, and rule circumvention by young users.
• Limits and challenges of age verification: While technically possible, age verification faces three main issues in practice: low reliability of simple methods, high requirements for sensitive data in more accurate solutions, and the ease with which users can bypass the rules. The result is a trade-off between protecting children and protecting privacy, for which no stable solution currently exists.
• European or national solution? EU-level regulation offers unified rules and stronger enforcement against platforms, but also raises concerns about centralized oversight and standardized digital identity systems. National approaches are more flexible and better adapted to local conditions, but less effective when dealing with global tech companies.

Analysis – Jan Rovenský

The analysis is in PDF under the link below.