Spain plans to bar children under 16 from using social media, marking one of the most aggressive online age restrictions in Europe, and another government is moving to introduce online digital ID.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the decision on February 3rd at the World Government Summit in Dubai, describing social media platforms as “a failed state, where laws are ignored, and crimes are tolerated.”
Under the upcoming policy, companies must install age-verification systems capable of blocking underage users. Sánchez said a separate bill, expected next week, will hold social media executives legally accountable for illegal or hateful content and will target algorithmic systems that promote such material. “We will protect them from the digital Wild West,” he said.
The move aligns Spain with countries that have recently sought to regulate youth access to online spaces.
Australia introduced a comparable ban in December, forcing platforms to delete roughly 4.7 million accounts tied to users under 16.
Sánchez argued that social networks have become ungoverned spaces that expose children to pornography, “misinformation,” and targeted hostility.
His coalition has warned repeatedly that these online environments erode psychological well-being and social development among younger generations. During his address, he urged other European governments to adopt similar restrictions, saying, “Our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone…We will no longer accept that.”
Several European countries are already following the same path. France has advanced legislation banning social media for those under 15.
President Emmanuel Macron defended the measure with the statement, “Because our children’s brains are not for sale, neither to American platforms nor to Chinese networks. Because their dreams must not be dictated by algorithms.” That bill is now moving through the Senate, while Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Poland, and the United Kingdom are reviewing comparable proposals.
Spain’s age-verification requirement would create a new technical and legal framework for identifying users online.
Such systems often rely on biometric data or digital ID checks, leaving citizens dependent on corporate or state-managed verification networks. Once these mechanisms are built, they are rarely confined to their original scope.
