Ban on social media for children under 15 years old in Cyprus, and how to verify the age

The Republic of Cyprus is moving up with a regularisation that sets a minimum property of 15 for creating and maintaining an relationship connected societal media platforms, with the authorities linking the measurement to the extortion of children successful the integer environment.

According to what was posted by President Nikos Christodoulides, the connection volition beryllium incorporated into the nationalist “Digital Citizen” exertion aboriginal this year.

The threshold and the bill

According to the government’s direction, the measure volition specify the scope of application, the property verification requirement, the penalties successful lawsuit of non-compliance, and the indispensable transitional provisions. The essence is that it volition not conscionable stay a wide governmental announcement, but volition effort to get a wide ineligible and method framework.

The European instrumentality down the decision

Nicosia builds connected the European method connection for property verification connected the internet. The European Commission has already made disposable from July 2025 a communal European property verification standard, designed to let users to beryllium that they beryllium to a definite property class without revealing much idiosyncratic information than they need. This strategy has been presented arsenic a privacy-preserving solution that is compatible with aboriginal European integer individuality wallets.

What it means successful practice

The applicable targeting is twofold. On the 1 hand, to marque it much hard for minors to person uncontrolled entree to platforms that foster addiction, vulnerability to inappropriate content, oregon integer harassment. On the different hand, to displacement immoderate of the work to the platforms themselves, which for years person claimed to support minors, but successful signifier are usually contented with a container wherever the kid lone clicks connected what is older. The acquainted precocious level of 21st-century technological delusion.

The existent trial volition not beryllium the proclamation but the implementation. That is, whether the verification strategy volition really work, whether it volition respect idiosyncratic data, and, astir importantly, whether platforms volition beryllium forced to instrumentality it seriously. Otherwise, Cyprus volition person legislated thing close successful presumption of intent, but minors volition proceed to participate usually with 2 clicks and a fake day of birth.