Macron wants to ban children access to social networks

Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that he would try to ban the access of children under 15 years of age to social networks, which he accused of promoting violence, after a student has stabbed a school security agent in France.

The French president also said that he will try to reach an agreement for such a measure between the EU countries, which last Friday began discussions on establishing a minimum age at the community level for access to social networks, access that will also be subject to parental control.

This initiative, promoted by France, Spain and Greece, also proposes to create effective mechanisms to verify the age of users. Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, Cyprus and Italy have joined the initiative, in the meantime also supported by Croatia and the Netherlands.

Macron has warned that, if not in a few months, this initiative will materialize in a few months, will negotiate the national prohibition of children under 15 years to social networks.

The European Commission opposed the idea launched by the French President Emmanuel Macron, but left the free way to the EU Member States to take such a measure at national level, reports the EFE agency.

« I took note of the announcement of the French President Emmanuel Macron. But we want to be clear, we said this often: a prohibition of social networks at European level cannot be decided by the European Commission, as this is a prerogative of our Member States, » said a community spokesman, Thomas.

The spokesman of the European Commission has reminded that the General Data Protection Regulation allows EU countries to establish an age of 13-16 years as a minimum age to open an account on social networks, therefore « Member States can use this option ». Spain and Slovakia want to establish this minimum age at 16, while France, Denmark and Greece want it to be 15 years.