Controversial.
A motion is being proposed by a lobby of European politicians to amend the European Data Protection Regulation and if it’s passed the legal age for social media users may rise from 13 to 16.
If this amendment is introduced, millions of European teenagers will not be allowed to use social media sites like Twitter, Snapchat or Facebook unless they have parental permission.
EU politicians have proposed a strict ban on social media sites handling data from anyone under the age of 16 without the consent of parents.
The proposal has been met with criticism by the Diana Award Youth Board, which aims to protect children from bullying, attacked the move.
Speaking with The Telegraph they said “This higher age threshold may incentivise children between the ages of 13 and 15 to lie about their age. Children aged 13 and above have long accessed online services; an artificial and sudden change to this threshold will likely result in many children between the ages of 13 and 15 lying about their ages in order to continue accessing online services – rather than asking their parents to consent,” it said.
This amendment is set to be debated by the European parliament’s civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee on Thursday before being ratified by the EU parliament in the New Year.
Countries would then have two years to implement the law.
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