Austrian officers spotlight dependancy and ill-health whereas advocating for stricter age restrictions.
Revealed On 27 Mar 2026
Austria plans to ban kids beneath 14 from utilizing social media, with an official saying sure on-line websites are addictive and making younger individuals “sick”.
“Austria is introducing a obligatory minimal age of 14 for using social media platforms,” conservative junior minister for digitisation, Alexander Proll, informed a joint information convention on Friday.
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Proell added that draft laws could be drawn up by June. Cupboard members from Austria’s two different governing events have been additionally in attendance.
“We are going to decisively defend kids and younger individuals in future from the adverse results of social media,” Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler of the Social Democrats stated.
“We are going to not stand by and watch whereas these platforms make our kids addicted and sometimes additionally sick … The dangers related with this use have been ignored for lengthy sufficient, and now it’s time to act,” he added.
Babler stated the federal government wouldn’t record particular person platforms the ban would apply to, however would determine based mostly on how addictive their algorithms are and whether or not they embrace content material reminiscent of “sexualised violence”.
The announcement comes days after a Los Angeles jury found Alphabet’s Google and Meta liable for $6m in damages in a landmark social media dependancy lawsuit.
The case concerned a 20-year-old girl who stated she grew to become hooked on the apps at a younger age because of their platform design. Meta says it plans to attraction the choice.
Additionally on Friday, the UK suggested dad and mom of kids beneath 5 to restrict display time to a most of 1 hour per day.
Just like Austria, different nations in Europe and elsewhere have banned using social media for youngsters.
In January, the French parliament voted in favour of banning kids aged beneath 15 from social media, amid rising issues about on-line bullying and psychological well being dangers.
International locations together with the UK, Denmark, Spain and Greece are additionally finding out a ban.
The European Parliament has known as for the European Union to set minimal ages for youngsters to entry social media, though it’s as much as member states to impose age limits.
