Spain, Greece Weigh Teen Social Media Bans, Drawing Fury From Elon Musk

Spain and Greece Consider Social Media Bans for Teens Amid Controversy

Proposed Social Media Regulations in Europe

MADRID, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Spain and Greece on Tuesday proposed bans on social media use by teenagers as attitudes hardened in Europe against technology some say is designed to be addictive and the measures announced by Spain's Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, drew fury from Elon Musk.

Government Responses and Public Opinion

Spain wants to prohibit social media for under-16s, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said. Greece is close to announcing a similar ban for children under 15, a senior government source said.

Impact of AI on Social Media Discussions

But Sanchez also said his government would create a law to hold social media executives personally responsible for hate speech on their platforms.

Accountability for Social Media Executives

The world's richest man and owner of X, formerly Twitter, reacted to socialist leader Sanchez's measures affecting social media platforms. "Dirty Sánchez is a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain," he wrote on X.

About an hour and a half later, he escalated his criticism, posting on X: "Sánchez is the true fascist totalitarian."

Representatives of Google, part of Alphabet, TikTok, Snapchat and Meta did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Spain's proposed measures.

Spain and Greece join countries such as Britain and France in considering tougher stances on social media, after Australia in December became the first nation to prohibit access to such platforms for children younger than 16. 

'COALITION OF THE DIGITALLY WILLING'

Governments and regulators worldwide are looking at the impact of children's screen time on their development and mental wellbeing.

"Our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone ... We will no longer accept that," Sanchez said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai. "We will protect them from the digital Wild West."

The Australia ban "leaves significant gaps that could undermine its goals," including limitations in age verification technology and users switching to unregulated messaging apps, Snapchat said in a statement on Monday.

Spain joins five other European countries that he dubbed the "Coalition of the Digitally Willing" to coordinate and enforce cross-border regulation, Sanchez said, without naming the countries, set to hold their first meeting in the coming days.

"We know that this is a battle that far exceeds the boundaries of any country," he said. His office did not respond to a request for clarification.

EXPLOSION OF AI-GENERATED CONTENT

Legislation to ban children under 15 from social media is currently passing through France's parliament. Britain is also considering similar measures.

Spain's proposed regulation would give parents clear backing to set limits and would ease social pressure for children worried about missing out, said Diana Diaz, director of the ANAR Foundation for at-risk children and adolescents.

The recent explosion of AI-generated content, and public outcry over reports of Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot generating non-consensual sexual images, including of minors, has fueled debate over the risks of such online content. 

But there was no unanimous agreement that social media harms adolescents, said Jose Cesar Perales, a professor in experimental psychology at the University of Granada.

HOLDING SOCIAL MEDIA EXECUTIVES ACCOUNTABLE

Sanchez said prosecutors would explore ways to investigate possible legal infractions by Elon Musk's Grok, as well as by TikTok and Instagram, part of Meta.

The proposed ban would be implemented as part of a change to an existing bill on digital protection for minors being debated in parliament, according to a government spokesperson.

About 82% of Spaniards said they believed children under 14 should be banned from social media, according to a 30-country Ipsos poll on education published last August. That was up from 73% in 2024.

“It's a good measure to encourage children to play with each other and not be on their mobile phones in parks, which I think is terrible, to be honest,” said Miguel Abad, a 19-year-old student in Madrid.

In Australia, social media companies deactivated nearly 5 million accounts belonging to teenagers within weeks of the ban taking effect, the internet regulator said last month, suggesting the measure could have a sweeping impact.

(Reporting by David Latona, Emma Pinedo, Victoria Waldersee, Renee Maltezou, Elizabeth Piper and Paolo Laudani; Writing by Charlie Devereux; Editing by Hugh Lawson, David Holmes, Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)