The French president also announced a crackdown on the online sale of knives to minors.
The EU is currently discussing how to keep young children away from the dangers of social media by establishing an EU-wide ‘age of digital adulthood’. This would see all social media banned for those under the age of 15, although they could still access it with parental consent.
However, many of the EU countries feel that these discussions are taking too far long. France, Greece and Spain have been especially vocal about the need to act quickly to protect children from online risks and harms. Denmark is also highly committed to the proposal.
Teaching assistant stabbing drives the urgency for controls
French president Emmanuel Macron has been pushing for tighter controls on web access for minors for some time now.
Speaking on 11th June, he said that France would ban social media for under-15s, even if the rest of Europe is not ready to. He also announced that age verification will be needed to buy knives online. This comes after a teaching assistant was stabbed to death during a routine student bag check at a school in Nogent in the east of France on 10th June.
Social media providers must adapt
Getting the social media providers on board is notoriously difficult. Even though the ability to verify ages could quickly be engineered into their technology, there is a disagreement between regulators and providers as to whether verification should take place at device, app store or operating system level.
