Greece has become one of the first countries in the European Union to legislate a minimum age for social media use, with its parliament approving a ban on platforms for children under 15. The measure, pushed through by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's governing majority despite opposition from minority parties, will take effect on January 1, 2027, giving platforms and regulators roughly a year to prepare.
What the law requires
The legislation applies to major platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X, and obliges them to introduce what the government calls "proportionate and reliable" age-verification systems. Companies that fail to comply will face penalties under the EU's Digital Services Act, the bloc's existing framework for regulating online platforms and holding them accountable for user safety.
Enforcement will not rest on the platforms alone. Parents will be expected to install one of two state-backed applications, Kids Wallet or Gov.gr, linked directly to a child's device to restrict access. According to Dimitris Papastergiou, Greece's minister for digital governance and artificial intelligence, these tools are built around "age tokens" - a verification method designed to confirm a user's age without exposing broader personal data. The approach reflects a wider tension in age-verification technology: proving someone is old enough to use a service while minimizing the amount of identifying information collected in the process.
A political wager ahead of EU consensus
Papastergiou framed the decision as an act of urgency rather than caution. "It would have been very easy to do absolutely nothing today and wait for the perfect European law," he said, arguing that children are "sinking into the internet every day" and that government has an obligation to respond. That argument underpins the broader strategy: Mitsotakis has said his government wants to "push the European Union" toward similar action.
The European Commission has since introduced its own proposal, the EU Kids Act, but it sets a lower threshold, banning access only for children under 13. Greece's 15-year age limit is therefore stricter than what Brussels currently contemplates, positioning Athens as a test case the rest of the bloc may watch closely before deciding how far to go.
Lessons from outside Europe
Greece is not acting in a vacuum. Australia became the first country to legislate a comprehensive social media ban for minors, and its rollout has exposed how difficult reliable age verification is in practice - from the risk of circumvention through false birthdates to concerns about the data platforms must collect to confirm a user's identity. Those same challenges will test Greece's system, particularly as it tries to balance enforcement with the privacy safeguards its officials have promised.
The policy builds on an earlier precedent: Greece banned mobile phones in schools in 2024, a move that appears to have built public tolerance for further restrictions. Polling cited by Greek officials suggests the new ban enjoys broad support among adults, even as critics in parliament questioned both its feasibility and its implications for digital rights.
What comes next
The eighteen months before implementation will likely determine whether Greece's model becomes a reference point for the rest of the EU or a cautionary example of enforcement gaps. Much depends on how age tokens perform in practice, how platforms respond to the compliance deadline, and whether the Kids Wallet and Gov.gr systems can scale without becoming either easily bypassed or overly invasive. For now, Greece has staked out a position well ahead of its European peers, betting that a stricter national standard will shape the debate that regulators in Brussels are only beginning to have.