The Greek government has submitted legislation to Parliament that would prohibit children under the age of 15 from accessing social networking services, while shifting the practical burden of enforcing that limit onto social platforms. The measure, presented by ministers from state, digital governance and health portfolios, frames the change as a public health and child protection intervention and as part of Greeces contribution to an EU wide response to online risks for minors.
What the bill would do
The draft sets a minimum age of 15 for access to services that function as social networks. It does not list platforms by name, but officials have cited mainstream services that enable profile creation, interaction and content sharing as falling within scope. The text requires providers to implement appropriate, proportionate and reliable age verification methods before an account can be used autonomously by someone who has not reached the threshold.
To reduce privacy risk, the government highlights so called age token solutions such as the national Gov.gr Wallet and the Kids Wallet as examples of tools that can confirm whether a person has reached the age limit without disclosing unnecessary personal data. The draft is technologically neutral, allowing companies to choose their own compliant verification methods, provided they match legal and European standards.
Enforcement, oversight and timing
The bill envisages enforcement working through existing European mechanisms under the Digital Services Act. Greeces national telecoms regulator has been identified as the principal domestic authority for oversight, with the Hellenic Data Protection Authority responsible for privacy issues and the National Council for Radio and Television having a role where relevant.
The government announced the bill would be tabled in parliamentary committee and scheduled for a plenary vote. Officials indicated the measure would come into force on January 1, 2027, giving platforms time to adapt verification processes. The bill also anticipates cooperation with EU regulators when a platforms country of establishment lies elsewhere in the bloc.
Government rationale
Ministers framed the policy as a response to mounting evidence that prolonged use of algorithmic social platforms can harm sleep, concentration, mental health and social relationships among young people. The presentation couples the age limit with obligations on platforms, arguing that relying on parents alone is insufficient against attention oriented recommendation systems.
Officials said the measure is intended to complement existing national tools and to advance a harmonised European approach. Greece has been active in EU-level discussions about setting a common minimum age and reliable age verification standards for online services, and the draft bill is positioned as both national protection and a political prompt for broader European rules.
Privacy and technical concerns
The government emphasised privacy safeguards in its presentation, proposing discrete age confirmation mechanisms that minimise the personal data exchanged between identity systems and platforms. Nonetheless, the requirement for reliable age checks raises familiar tradeoffs between privacy, practicability and evasion risk.
Critics of strict age controls have warned that any verification system must avoid creating a surveillance style infrastructure that collects or centralises childrens sensitive data. Proponents counter that advances such as cryptographic age tokens can prove age without revealing identity details, and that national wallets or similar public digital identity services can limit data exposure when properly designed.
How the measure fits into European debates
The proposal arrives amid broader European scrutiny of platform design, algorithmic recommendation and minors safety. The Digital Services Act includes provisions specifically aimed at protecting children, and several member states have debated or implemented national rules on age limits and verification. Greeces draft explicitly links national enforcement with the DSA framework and signals readiness to use national measures to push for common EU solutions.
Who will be affected and why it matters
If approved in its present form, the law would reshape how platforms operate in Greece for users under 15 and set obligations that could require material engineering and policy changes. Platforms will need to select, test and deploy age verification systems that meet the proportionality and privacy standards the law requires. Compliance costs and technical complexity will be significant, especially for smaller services that are not already part of EU regulatory workflows.
The measure also matters because it could influence policy conversations elsewhere in Europe. By coupling a clear age threshold with platform duties and a timeline for enforcement, Greece is pressing both domestic and EU level actors to move from guidance into concrete technical and legal arrangements. For parents and educators in Greece, the law promises a new regulatory backstop; for platforms, it signals stricter national expectations that will intersect with transnational DSA oversight and local privacy rules.
The bill was presented by the Minister of State, the Minister of Digital Governance and the Minister of Health as part of a national strategy on child online safety. Parliament is expected to consider the measure in committee, with the government planning a plenary vote and an implementation date of January 1, 2027.
