Greece passes social media ban for children under 15 from January 2027

Greece's parliament on Friday, October 23, 2026, passed a law that bans children under 15 from using social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X, starting on January 1, 2027. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis's government says the measure is needed to protect children from addictive apps that harm their sleep, concentration and mental health.

What the new Greek law says

The bill passed with the votes of Mitsotakis's centre-right New Democracy party, which has a majority in the 300-seat parliament. Smaller opposition parties opposed it, and the main socialist opposition party, PASOK, abstained.

Detail	What the law says
Age limit	Under 15
Start date	January 1, 2027
Platforms covered	Social networks such as TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X
Not covered	Messaging apps
Age checks	Platforms must use "proportionate and reliable" methods
State tools	Kids Wallet and Gov.gr Wallet apps issue an age token
Oversight	Greek data protection authority and broadcasting council; EU Digital Services Act for big platforms
Penalties for families	None — the law targets companies, not children or parents

The state apps confirm only whether a user is above the age limit, without passing on their date of birth or other personal details. For simplicity, the law treats January 1 as the birthday of everyone born in the same year. Parents can also pair the Kids Wallet app with a child's phone to block access.

Platforms that fail to comply face penalties, with the largest services policed under the European Union's Digital Services Act.

Background: from school phone ban to social media ban

Greece banned mobile phones in schools in 2024. Mitsotakis announced the social media plan in April 2026 in a video message to young people, pointing to rising anxiety, sleep problems and the "addictive design" of online platforms. He called it a "difficult but necessary" step.

Australia became the first country to bring in a full social media ban for under-16s, which took effect in December 2025, although enforcing age checks has proved difficult there. Around 20 countries now restrict young people's access to social media apps in some form. Greece is also one of seven EU states working with the European Commission on a shared age-verification system.

Reactions

Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou, who steered the bill through parliament, said it would have been easy to do nothing and wait for "the perfect European law", and warned that children were "sinking into the internet every day".

PASOK had proposed a softer alternative: a ban only for under-13s, with parental controls for 13- and 14-year-olds. Opinion polls show strong support for the ban among Greek adults, though some digital rights groups worry about privacy and about how well age checks will work in practice.

Why it matters

Greece is one of the first EU members to set a full legal age limit for social media, and Mitsotakis wants to push the rest of the bloc in the same direction. The European Commission's proposed EU Kids Act would impose an outright ban only for children under 13, so the Greek law goes further.

For tech companies, a growing patchwork of national rules means building age-check systems country by country. For families in other countries, including Pakistan and India, where millions of teenagers use TikTok and Instagram, the Greek and Australian laws are becoming test cases for whether such bans can actually be enforced.

What happens next

Platforms have until January 1, 2027, to introduce age checks for Greek users. Regulators will then monitor compliance, and the government says it will press for similar rules at EU level. Officials will be watching closely whether children simply move to other apps or use workarounds such as VPNs, which was a key problem in Australia's first months.