{"id":72588,"date":"2026-05-22T14:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=72588"},"modified":"2026-05-22T14:17:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T12:17:22","slug":"minors-and-media-no-simple-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/minors-and-media-no-simple-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"Minors and Media: No Simple Solution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Berlin, Germany.<\/em> <strong>Many Germans support the idea of restricting social media use for minors. However, implementing such measures is proving to be a complex endeavor.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>In Germany, calls\u2014from politicians as well as from parents and educators\u2014for a ban on social media for children and adolescents are growing louder. The country is following a global trend toward restricting young people&#8217;s access to platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Australia is leading the way: since December 2025 children and adolescents under the age of 16 have been prohibited from holding their own accounts on major platforms. Spain, France, Denmark, Norway, Greece, and Turkey are also in the process of introducing legally binding restrictions for 14- to 16-year-olds. Against this backdrop, Karin Prien\u2014the CDU Minister for Family Affairs\u2014commissioned an expert committee on child and youth protection in the digital world in September 2025 to develop a scientific foundation for potential legislative measures. The committee is not expected to present concrete recommendations for action until late June. However, it did provide an interim assessment in April. The conclusion: There is no simple solution for providing better protection for minors on apps and the internet. Committee Chairman Olaf K\u00f6ller argues that age restrictions\u2014if implemented as a standalone measure\u2014fall short of what is needed. Instead, a continuously evolving comprehensive strategy is required\u2014one that incorporates, for instance, widespread media literacy education and preventive measures for children, adolescents, parents, and educators. Furthermore, the Scientific Services\u2014which provide research support to members of the Bundestag\u2014see little leeway for enforcing a complete ban on social media for minors, citing various provisions within both EU law and the German Basic Law. Therefore, proponents of a ban are calling on the EU Commission to present its own legislative proposal for regulations applicable across the entire EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Sources <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heise.de\/news\/Social-Media-Verbot-Tuerkei-stimmt-dafuer-Norwegen-arbeitet-an-Gesetzesentwurf-11271067.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Heise<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/netzpolitik.org\/2026\/eu-recht-geht-vor-kein-spielraum-fuer-deutsches-social-media-verbot\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Netzpolitik<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tagesschau.de\/inland\/innenpolitik\/kommission-social-media-102.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tagesschau<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/deutsches-schulportal.de\/schule-im-umfeld\/social-media-gesetz-australien-umfrage-sollten-soziale-medien-fuer-kinder-unter-16-auch-in-deutschland-verboten-sein\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Deutsches Schulportal<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Translation <\/strong>Paula Boslau<br><strong>Image<\/strong> Robin Worrall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Berlin, Germany. Many Germans support the idea of restricting social media use for minors. However, implementing such measures is proving to be a complex endeavor. In Germany, calls\u2014from politicians as well as from parents and educators\u2014for a ban on social media for children and adolescents are growing louder. The country is following a global trend toward restricting young people&#8217;s access to platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Australia is leading the way: since December 2025 children and adolescents under [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9181,"featured_media":72260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8820,8809,9086],"tags":[11797,11798,8803,8799],"class_list":["post-72588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-digital-world","category-youth","tag-ausgabe-19-2026-en","tag-english-issue-21-2026","tag-news-en-2","tag-worldwide"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72588"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72599,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72588\/revisions\/72599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}