Minimum age of 15: Norway plans increased youth protection for social media

The Norwegian government intends to enforce a new fixed age limit for social networks more vigorously through additional measures. These include an enhanced age limit and a change in the law stating that young people must be 15 years old to consent to their data being processed, according to the Norwegian government's press release.

According to Medietilsynet, the Norwegian media authority, the country had already introduced an age limit of 13 in 2018 to protect children's personal data. However, this age restriction is not a concrete ban, but requires parental permission if children want to create a profile earlier. Despite this initiative, around 70 percent of children in the nine to twelve age group are still active on social media.

The Norwegian government announced in a press release that it is seeking to "introduce an absolute age limit for social media". The amendment to the law on the age regulation of personal data is therefore to be seen as the first step in this direction.

Other countries no longer rely solely on the self-restriction of Instagram and other platforms when it comes to the protection of minors. It was only in the summer that Belgium imposed a ban on cell phones in schools up to secondary school age, a measure that France and Italy had already enforced in 2018.

(hoh)