Spain plans to ban access to social media for minors under the age of 16, with platforms set to face strict age-verification requirements, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced on Tuesday.
Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Sánchez said children are being exposed to online spaces filled with hate speech, pornography, and disinformation, warning that young users were “never meant to navigate this digital world alone.” He described today’s online environment as a “digital Wild West” and said Spain would no longer tolerate the risks posed to minors.
The Spanish government will introduce legislation as early as next week that would hold social media executives legally accountable for illegal and hate-speech content on their platforms.
The bill will also criminalise algorithmic manipulation and the amplification of unlawful material, alongside introducing systems to track hate speech online.
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