Denmark: A plan to ban children under 15 from using social networking sites

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced a government plan to impose a ban on children under the age of 15 using social media platforms for children, according to Politico magazine.

Frederiksen said in her opening speech before the Danish Parliament, “Folkting”, the day before yesterday, that “mobile phones and social media platforms are stealing our children’s childhood,” adding, “We have unleashed a monster,” noting that almost all seventh grade students, where students are usually 13 or 14 years old, own a mobile phone.

In her speech, the Prime Minister cited figures showing that 60% of boys between the ages of 11 and 19 did not meet a single friend in their free time, while 94% of Danish children in the seventh grade of primary school had accounts on social media platforms before they reached the age of 13.

She continued: “I hope that you here in the council will help tighten the law so that we can take better care of our children here in Denmark.”

For her part, Denmark’s Minister of Digitalization, Caroline Stege, said that her government’s announcement was an “achievement.” She added: “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: We were very naive. We left children’s digital lives to platforms that never took their safety into consideration. We must move from digital captivity to community (activism).”

However, Frederiksen did not provide further details on what such a ban would entail, and a draft law on the minimum age did not appear in the government’s legislative program for the next parliamentary year.