LISBON
\nPortugal\u2019s parliament on Thursday approved a bill, on its first reading, requiring explicit parental consent for children aged 13 to 16 to access social media, in one of the first concrete legislative moves in Europe to impose such restrictions.
\nAuthors of the draft legislation from the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) say it is needed to protect children from cyberbullying, harmful content and predatory individuals. A public system known as Digital Mobile Key (DMK) will be used by parents to give consent, also helping to enforce the existing ban for children under the age of 13 to access digital social media, video- and image-sharing platforms, or online betting sites.
\nTech providers are also required to implement an age verification system compatible with the DMK. The bill, approved by 148\u201369 votes with 13 abstentions, can still be modified before the final vote. France\u2019s lower house last month backed legislation to ban children under 15 from social media amid growing concerns about online bullying and mental health risks.
\nAustralia\u2019s world-first ban for under-16s on social media platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube came into force in December. The Portuguese bill says it will fill a regulatory gap that has allowed \u201cmultinational digital platforms to set rules unilaterally\u201d, affecting children\u2019s cognitive and emotional development, particularly with early or excessive exposure.
\nIt says that over the past two decades, social media have assumed roles long held by families and schools without regulation. \u201cWe have to protect our children\u2026we don\u2019t intend to prohibit for the sake of prohibiting, we intend to create a norm to give more power to parents and families, to accompany and control,\u201d PSD lawmaker Paulo Marcelo said before the vote. He said that tech companies ignoring the restrictions could face fines of up to 2 per cent of their global revenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LISBON Portugal\u2019s parliament on Thursday approved a bill, on its first reading, requiring explicit parental consent for children aged 13 to 16 to access social media, in one of the first concrete legislative moves in Europe to impose such restrictions. Authors of the draft legislation from the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) say it is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531267,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-531254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n