As social media platforms continue to entrench themselves in the daily lives of users across Europe, several EU member states are taking a bold step to shield children from harmful online content. France, Spain, and Greece have jointly launched an initiative advocating for bloc-wide, mandatory age verification mechanisms on social media platforms such as Meta’s Facebook and Elon Musk’s X, according to a report by Bloomberg on May 16.

This joint effort seeks to introduce sweeping digital safeguards for minors by requiring all internet-connected devices within the European Union to be equipped with age verification technology. Digital services ministers from the three countries are currently coordinating the proposal and are set to present their case at a high-level meeting of EU digital ministers on June 6.

The effort comes at a time of intensifying scrutiny over the psychological and emotional toll that social media may be taking on young users. The three nations argue that the current lack of robust, widespread age-verification mechanisms makes it nearly impossible to effectively enforce age limits. Under existing rules, children can often bypass age restrictions with little to no effort, exposing them to content that may be violent, sexually explicit, or psychologically damaging.

France, Spain, and Greece aim to use the EU’s collective consumer weight-home to approximately 450 million people-to pressure tech giants into deploying more effective, accountable systems that can restrict access based on a user’s age.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been vocal in his endorsement of mandatory age checks for young social media users.........

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