A 13-year-old boy poses while looking at social media on his mobile phone at his home in Sydney on December 8, 2025 (Photo: Saeed KHAN/AFP, Getty Images)
Saeed Khan | AFP | Getty Images
Spain on Tuesday announced plans to introduce an Australian-style social media ban for under-16s as part of a broader crackdown on tech giants over flaws in their systems to protect users from harm.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, accused social media platforms of wrongdoing. Mr Sánchez said young people under the age of 16 will no longer be able to access social media platforms from next week as part of a series of five government measures targeting social media platforms.
“Social media has become a failed state, where laws are ignored, crime is perpetuated, misinformation is more valuable than truth, and half of its users suffer from hate speech,” Sanchez said. “A broken state where algorithms distort public conversations and our data and images are ignored and sold.”
He explained that to enforce a ban on under-16s, “platforms need to implement effective age verification systems – real barriers that work, not just checkboxes.”
Sanchez added, “Today, our children are being exposed to spaces they should never have navigated alone: spaces of addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation, and violence. We will not accept that anymore. We will protect our children from the digital wilderness.”
Spain became the first European country to formally introduce a ban after Australia’s Online Safety Amendment Act came into force in December.
Effectively, I needed a platform that: meta Instagram, ByteDance’s TikTok, of the alphabet YouTube, Elon Musk’s X and Reddit could introduce age verification measures or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($32 million) if they violate them.
Spain has not yet specified which companies will be affected by the new rules, but Sanchez criticized major platforms for their misconduct, including TikTok, which allowed its accounts to share “AI-generated child abuse material,” Elon Musk’s X, which allowed its AI chatbot Grok to “generate illegal sexual content,” and Instagram, which “spyed on millions of Android users.”
CNBC has reached out to TikTok, X, and Instagram regarding these claims and is awaiting comment.
Spain’s other four measures focus on the legal liability of executives who fail to remove unregulated or hateful content, and turn “algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content” into new criminal offenses.
Sanchez said five other European countries have joined Spain in enforcing stricter rules for social media platforms.
The French National Assembly recently voted in favor of a bill restricting access to social media for under-16s, but the bill must be approved by the Senate before it can be officially passed. Similarly, the House of Lords has backed a ban on social media for under-16s, but it must first be passed by the House of Commons for approval.
High-tech companies respond
Australia’s social media ban drew attention around the world, but Spain’s new announcement sets a precedent for more countries to follow. This has left big technology companies in a bind.
In January, Meta, which operates Instagram, Facebook and Threads, announced it had removed 550,000 accounts across its platforms believed to belong to Australians under the age of 16. It called on the Australian government to reconsider its decision.
“We call on the Australian government to engage constructively with the industry to find a better way forward, rather than an outright ban, including encouraging the industry as a whole to raise standards for providing safe, private and age-appropriate experiences online,” Mr Mehta said.
Meta warned that without the protections offered to registered users, teens will continue to find other ways to access social media apps.
Meanwhile, Reddit has launched a legal challenge against Australia, arguing that the new law is ineffective and restricts political debate.
“This is a global issue and governments everywhere are having to respond,” Daisy Greenwell, co-founder of UK-based Smartphone Free Childhood, previously told CNBC. SFC is a grassroots movement urging parents to slow down their children’s smartphone and social media use.
“We are already seeing countries moving in this direction, and as confidence grows and evidence accumulates, more countries will follow. No one believes that the status quo is doing children, parents or society any favors, and this is one of the clearest policy responses currently being considered,” Greenwell added.
