Greece Passes Under-15 Social Media Ban, With Age Checks From 2027

Children under 15 in Greece will be barred from social media from 1 January 2027, after the country’s parliament passed a bill on 23 October that makes platforms responsible for checking how old their users are. A joint release from the Ministries of Health and of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence says the start date leaves time for platforms to adapt.

The government says Greece is now the first EU country to adopt rules on children’s online safety that are “reasonable, proportionate, effective” and compatible with European law (translated). How the ban will work matters as much as the age limit itself. Ministers say platforms must check ages using tools that tell them only whether a user is old enough. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said platforms have “2-1/2 months to devise a way to verify users’ ages and protect their privacy”, Reuters reported.

The law makes platforms, not parents, responsible for checking age

The bill’s title is “Ban on the use of online social networking services by minors under 15” (translated). According to the joint release, it sets a minimum age of 15 and places the duty of reliable age verification on the platforms. Stating a minimum age in the terms of use will not be enough. The ban covers social networking only, not private communication or educational use, and the law sets up complaint channels and compliance monitoring.

“Relying solely on parental supervision creates inequalities. Every child is entitled to a common level of protection,” said Minister of State Akis Skertsos, who introduced the bill (translated). “Parents see the consequences at home every day: in the phone that is hard to put down, in sleep that is shrinking, in constant comparison with images of life and appearance,” he said (translated).

Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou said platforms “must take the necessary measures, facing fines of up to 6% of their global turnover” (translated). When the framework was first presented in April, the Ministry of Digital Governance said enforcement would run through the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), carried out either by the European Commission or by the Digital Services Coordinator in the country where each platform is established.

Ministers say the age check reveals only whether a user is over 15

The government’s case rests on privacy. According to the release, the verification process passes on only whether a user meets the age threshold, no single technology is imposed, and errors can be corrected. Greece is one of seven countries, with Cyprus, Denmark, France, Ireland, Italy and Spain, working with the Commission on the EU’s age-verification solution, it said.

“When there is doubt about a user’s age, platforms can use tools such as Kids Wallet, reliably and respecting privacy, in line with the European framework,” Papastergiou said (translated). In the chamber, he said Kids Wallet “does not give any personal data of children or users at all, only whether they are over or under 15, not even the date of birth”, Kathimerini reported, citing the ANA-MPA news agency (translated).

The Commission’s age-verification page says its solution, feature-ready since 15 April 2026, lets users prove their age “without sharing any other personal information”. It can be adapted to thresholds such as 13+, and it uses the same specifications as the EU Digital Identity Wallets due in every member state by the end of 2026.

Only the governing party backed the bill in principle

The bill passed by majority. In the vote on its principle, only the governing New Democracy party voted in favour, Kathimerini reported. PASOK voted “present”, while SYRIZA, Greek Solution, the Communist Party (KKE), Niki and Course of Freedom voted against.

Opposition MPs had asked for graded access for 13- to 15-year-olds under parental control. Skertsos replied that this provision in the EU KIDS Act is still a proposal, not law, and cannot be adopted by Greece alone without going beyond the limits of the DSA. The Commission says that proposal, adopted in September 2026, sets 15 as the minimum age to create an independent account. “Once it is finalised and applicable, Greek legislation will be adapted where required,” Skertsos said (translated).

Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said: “We are not against technology and progress. We are against the risks” (translated).

Australia went first, and France’s attempt was struck down

Australia was the first country to pass a law limiting children’s use of social media, last year, according to Reuters. A similar French law was struck down by France’s Constitutional Council in August. Elsewhere, TSN has covered the Philippine House vote on a bill to bar under-13s, which is not yet law, and Switzerland’s proposed youth protection rules for very large platforms.

Britain’s Online Safety Act regulates content, not a minimum age

The UK has taken a different route. Since 25 July 2025, according to GOV.UK, platforms have had to use “highly effective age assurance” to stop children seeing pornography and content that encourages self-harm, suicide or eating disorders. The government’s Online Safety Act explainer sets no single minimum age for social media. Instead, services that do set age limits must say in their terms how they enforce them and must do so consistently. Fines can reach £18 million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue. Collecting them has proved harder: nine of its 11 Online Safety Act fines remain unpaid.

The privacy promise depends on tools still being rolled out

Greece’s law asks platforms to establish that a user is old enough, and to do it in a way that tells them almost nothing else. That is the right design for a child-safety rule, because an age check that collects identity documents creates a new store of sensitive data about minors. The weak point is timing. The Commission’s own tool only became feature-ready in April, the full EU wallets are not due until the end of 2026, and platforms have until 1 January to comply. For compliance teams, the practical question is whether Kids Wallet becomes the default route or one option among several, since the law imposes no single technology.

Athens has built its legal defence into the bill

The government has clearly drafted with a court challenge in mind. The release grounds the ban in the constitution’s protection of childhood and weighs it against rights to take part in the information society, data protection and proportionality. Skertsos’s refusal to legislate for graded access shows how tightly the DSA limits what one member state can do. Placing enforcement inside the DSA keeps the law within EU rules. But if it runs as the April framework described, much of the policing will fall to the Commission and to regulators in the countries where platforms are established, not to Athens. TSN tracks these rules on its AI Regulation hub.

The first test comes on 1 January 2027, when Greek children under 15 open their apps and each platform has to decide what to ask them.

Sources

• Joint release, Greek Ministries of Health and of Digital Governance & AI (23 Oct 2026, in Greek)
• Greek Ministry of Digital Governance: new framework for minors’ access to social media (8 Apr 2026, in Greek)
• European Commission: The EU approach to age verification
• Reuters via The Hindu: Greece passes social media ban for children under 15 (23 Oct 2026)
• Kathimerini: Parliament passes under-15 social media ban (23 Oct 2026, in Greek)
• GOV.UK: Online Safety Act collection
• GOV.UK: Online Safety Act explainer

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