Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that Spain will move to ban children under 16 from accessing social media and will require platforms to implement robust age-verification systems. Speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Sánchez said the measures aim to impose safety controls on what he described as the “digital Wild West,” and that platform executives could face criminal liability for failing to remove illegal or hateful content.
“Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone,” Sánchez said. “Space of addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation, violence. We will no longer accept that. We will protect them from the digital Wild West.” He added that the laws would begin implementation next week and that authorities plan to investigate algorithmic manipulation and amplification on platforms, naming Elon Musk’s Grok, Instagram and TikTok as subjects of scrutiny.
Sánchez’s announcement follows similar moves elsewhere. About two weeks earlier, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was open to considering a social media ban for minors, and Australia began requiring platforms to bar account access for under-16s in December.
Separately, Spain is transitioning crypto platforms to the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework passed in 2023. MiCA gives crypto firms operating before December 2024 until June 30 to comply or stop offering services. Spain’s national securities regulator published its expectations in December, outlining authorization, notification and compliance requirements under MiCA.
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