Spain intends to prohibit children under the age of 16 from accessing social media and will demand that platforms put in place effective age-verification mechanisms, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Tuesday during remarks at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
Sanchez framed the measures as necessary to protect younger users from harmful material that his left-wing coalition government says is proliferating across social networks. The government has repeatedly voiced concerns about the spread of hate speech, pornographic material and disinformation, arguing these trends have detrimental effects on young people.
"Our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone... We will no longer accept that," Sanchez said, adding that Spain would not tolerate what he called the digital Wild West. He urged other European nations to consider similar steps to protect minors online.
The prime minister noted that Australia introduced a ban in December that bars children under 16 from social media, and said Spain had joined five other European countries in a group he labelled the "Coalition of the Digitally Willing" to coordinate regulation and enforcement across borders. Sanchez said the coalition will convene for its first meeting in the coming days but did not identify the participating countries; his office did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
As part of the package of proposals, Sanchez said his government will introduce legislation as early as next week to hold social media executives accountable for illegal and hate-speech content. The draft measures would also criminalise algorithmic manipulation and the amplification of illegal material, according to his remarks.
Among the specific steps outlined, Sanchez recommended the establishment of a system to track hate speech online. He emphasised that age-verification systems should be substantive and not merely procedural "check boxes" that fail to prevent underage access.
He added that prosecutors will explore possible legal avenues to investigate alleged infractions by Elon Musk's Grok, as well as by TikTok and Instagram. Sanchez said his government would initiate the legislative process from as early as next week, signalling a rapid push to enact the proposed measures.
Context and scope
- Spain will seek a legal ban on social media access for those under 16 and require substantive age verification on platforms.
- The government plans to propose laws to make social media executives legally responsible for illegal content and to criminalise certain algorithmic behaviours.
- Spain has joined a multi-country European coalition to coordinate regulation and enforcement, though membership details were not disclosed.
Sanchez characterised the effort as an international challenge that "far exceeds the boundaries of any country," underlining the cross-border nature of online platforms and content flows.