Civic Coalition will present draft outline on Friday, fines planned for platforms accessible to younger users
The changes amend India’s 2021 IT rules, which have already been a flashpoint between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and global technology companies. PHOTO: PIXABAY
Poland plans to introduce new legislation to ban social media for children under 15 years of age and will hold platforms responsible for age verification, Education Minister Barbara Nowacka told Bloomberg News in an interview published on Friday.
The ruling Civic Coalition will present the draft outline on Friday, with fines planned for platforms that remain accessible to younger users, Nowacka said, adding that the law could take effect by early 2027.
“We see the mental health of children and young people, we see a decline in their intellectual competence,” said Nowacka, adding that the size of penalties that companies would have to pay is still under discussion.
Several European governments, including Denmark, Greece, France, Spain and Britain, have explored similar restrictions amid claims that social-media services are harmful or addictive for minors.
The British government said in January it was considering restrictions to protect children online, after Australia implemented similar laws in December.
The initiative could put Warsaw at odds with US tech firms such as Meta and Elon Musk’s X, some of which have pushed back against restrictions following Australia’s ban last year.
Read: Malaysia to ban social media for under 16s from 2026
Spain plans to ban access to social media for teenagers under 16, and platforms will be required to implement age-verification systems, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said at the beginning of February 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, pornographic 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 Government Summit in Dubai, calling on other European countries to implement similar measures.
“We will protect them from the digital Wild West,” he added.
A trial involving internet giants Meta and YouTube began Monday in a Los Angeles civil court and could set a major legal precedent regarding the civil liability of social media operators. The plaintiff’s lawyer in the landmark trial said the social media giants “engineered addiction” among their young users.
Meta and Google-owned YouTube “engineered addiction” in children, a lawyer for the plaintiff said on Monday.
“This case is about two of the richest corporations in history who have engineered addiction in children’s brains,” the attorney, Mark Lanier, told the jury in his opening statement.
