Cabinet will advise age limit of 15 years for social media

No social media for children under the age of 15, that is what the outgoing cabinet will advise Dutch parents, report RTL News and press agency ANP based on insiders. The Cabinet will also advise parents to give children a smartphone only from group eight of the primary school. The advice is in the ‘Healthy Screen use’ guideline of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS), which will be published on Monday or Tuesday.

It would be about without obligation advice based on research by both scientists and social organizations. The advice not to use social media under the age of 15 is about platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram. Other platforms that are sometimes included in social media, such as WhatsApp and Signal, are not discouraged because they have a practical and communicative function.

Last May written A group of two thousand doctors and experts a fire letter containing the call for a smartphone and social media ban for children. According to the authors of the letter, smartphone and social media use leads to physical and mental health problems.

In the House of Representatives, the parties of ChristenUnie and NSC submitted an initiative memorandum in which they called to set up an age limit for the use of social media. Last year, both the Australian government coalition and the largest opposition party in the country voted for an age limit of sixteen years for the use of social media. It is the first country to announce such a ban.

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