Spain is preparing to bar children under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms, as Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez unveiled sweeping digital safety measures aimed at what he called the “digital Wild West.”
Speaking on Tuesday, February 3, 2026, at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Sánchez said social media companies operating in Spain would be required to implement robust age-verification systems, warning that simple self-declaration checkboxes would no longer be acceptable.
“Our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone,” Sánchez said. “We will no longer accept that.”
The announcement places Spain at the forefront of a growing global push to curb children’s access to social media amid rising concerns over online harm, addiction, hate speech, pornography, and disinformation. Sánchez urged other European governments to follow suit, calling for coordinated cross-border regulation.
“We will protect them from the digital Wild West,” he said.
Europe’s ‘Digitally Willing’ Coalition
Sánchez revealed that Spain has joined what he described as the “Coalition of the Digitally Willing,” a bloc of five European countries seeking to harmonise enforcement of online safety laws. While he declined to name the other members, he said the group would hold its first formal meeting in the coming days.
As part of the initiative, Spain will introduce legislation next week to hold social media executives personally accountable for illegal and hate-speech content on their platforms. The bill would also criminalise algorithmic manipulation and the amplification of unlawful content.
Among the proposed measures is a national system to monitor hate speech online, alongside mandatory age-verification mechanisms designed to be both effective and privacy-preserving.
Sánchez added that Spanish prosecutors are already exploring potential legal infractions involving major platforms, including Elon Musk’s Grok, TikTok, and Instagram.
Australia Sets the Pace
Spain’s move follows Australia’s landmark decision in December 2025 to ban children under 16 from using social media—the first such nationwide prohibition in the world.
Australia’s Senate passed the legislation by a vote of 34 to 19, following overwhelming approval in the House of Representatives. The law empowers regulators to fine platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X, and Instagram up to 50 million Australian dollars if they fail to prevent under-16s from creating accounts.
Under the Australian framework, companies will have one year to develop and deploy enforcement mechanisms before penalties take effect. Amendments to the law also prohibit platforms from demanding government-issued identification, bolstering privacy protections for users.
While the ban enjoys bipartisan political support, critics—including child welfare advocates and mental health professionals—warn it could have unintended consequences.
Senator David Shoebridge of the Greens cautioned that vulnerable children who rely on online communities for support could be isolated. “We must be careful not to sever lifelines while trying to build guardrails,” he said.
Opposition Senator Maria Kovacic defended the law, arguing that social media companies have long failed to act responsibly.
“This legislation demands that platforms take reasonable steps to remove underage users,” she said. “That responsibility has been ignored for far too long in favour of profit.”
A Legal Reckoning for Big Tech
The policy momentum in Europe and Australia comes as social media companies face mounting legal pressure in the United States.
Earlier this year, Snapchat confirmed it reached a settlement to avoid a civil trial in Los Angeles, accusing the platform—alongside Meta, TikTok, and YouTube—of deliberately addicting young users. Details of the settlement were not disclosed.
The case was being closely watched as a potential bellwether for dozens of similar lawsuits nationwide, many coordinated by the Social Media Victims Law Centre. Other cases are proceeding through federal courts in California and state courts across the country.
Social media firms argue they are shielded by U.S. law from liability for user-generated content. Plaintiffs, however, contend that the platforms’ algorithm-driven business models are designed to maximise engagement at the expense of young users’ mental health.
The lawsuits allege links between social media use and depression, eating disorders, psychiatric hospitalisation, and suicide among teenagers.
A jury trial scheduled to begin in Los Angeles in early February is expected to scrutinise whether platform algorithms contributed to severe mental health harm suffered by a 19-year-old woman. Executives, including Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, were slated to testify.
“Platform owners cannot continue to deny responsibility for how their products are designed and used,” a spokesperson for the law centre said. “The dangers are real, and the harm is measurable.”
A Global Turning Point
As governments tighten regulations and courts weigh accountability, Spain’s proposed ban signals a broader shift in how democracies are responding to the power of social media over young lives.
Whether the measures will protect children—or push them toward darker corners of the internet—remains fiercely contested. What is clear is that the era of light-touch regulation is rapidly coming to an end.
