Social media ban for adolescents: Disagreement in the Union camp

Federal Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU) favors stricter regulation of social media services for children and young people. She wants to restrict the use of social media by adolescents through mandatory age verification, but has not yet decided on a specific age limit. She recently stated this in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio. At the federal state level, party colleagues are generally more in line with Prien, including Schleswig-Holstein's Minister-President Daniel Günther (CDU), who favors a fixed age limit of 16. Some European countries are also in favor of an EU-wide regulation. However, CSU leader and Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder has now clearly opposed the Federal Minister's plans and announced his rejection at voting level. He called Prien's proposal not only “unrealistic”, but also “total nonsense”.

Expert commission to coordinate with the federal states

Prien had announced this week that he would set up an expert commission before the summer break with the involvement of the federal states to develop a strategy for implementing a ban. To this end, she would also have to work together with the federal states. However, Söder described the demand for an age limit with a corresponding age check for social media as “a bit old-fashioned and out of date”, as reported by dpa. And he already announced how Bavaria would react to this in votes: “The opinion of Bavaria and myself is very clear – we would not agree to this either,” he said.

Söder justified his rejection with the fact that a ban would make offers such as TikTok, Instagram, or Snapchat even more interesting for children and young people. He believes that media literacy and parental responsibility are the right way to deal with the platforms. The German Teachers' Association expressed similar views this week. Association President Stefan Düll also called the idea of a legal age limit “unrealistic” and “not sensible”. Although the desire to protect children is understandable, “Facebook, Instagram and TikTok are part of a reality in which young people have to learn to find their way around. Bans don't help here”.

Clearer support at federal and European level

Prien can currently rely on the support of her coalition partner, the SPD, at federal level. Among others, Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) also considers a clear age limit for social media to be necessary. Both Prien and Hubig emphasize the protection of children and young people. The CDU/CSU and SPD have also agreed in the coalition agreement to strengthen the protection of children and young people on the internet. At the EU level, Spain, France, and Greece advocated an EU-wide ban on social media for children under the age of 16 or 15 at the EU Digital Ministers' Conference in Luxembourg. Strict age controls would have to be introduced in all 27 EU countries to enforce a ban. If no agreement is reached at EU level, France wants to enforce national bans and age controls. However, the Digital Services Act could be an obstacle to this.

(kbe)