Spain to ban social media access for children under 16

Spain will ban access to social media for minors under 16 and platforms will be required to implement age verification systems, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday as he announced several measures to guarantee a safe digital environment.

Sanchez's left-wing coalition government has repeatedly complained about the proliferation of hate speech, adult content and disinformation on social media, saying it had negative effects on young people.

"Our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone... We will no longer accept that," Sanchez said as he addressed the World Governments Summit in Dubai, calling on other European countries to implement similar measures.

"We will protect them from the digital Wild West," he added.

Australia in December became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, a move being closely watched by other countries considering similar age-based measures, such as Britain and France.

Sanchez said his government would also introduce a new bill next week to hold social media executives accountable for illegal and hate-speech content, as well as to criminalise algorithmic manipulation and the amplification of illegal content.

He added that prosecutors would explore ways to investigate possible legal infractions by Elon Musk's Grok, TikTok and Instagram.