Germany Moves Closer to a Social Media Ban for Those Under 16(bloomberg.com)
bloomberg.com
Germany Moves Closer to a Social Media Ban for Those Under 16
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-16/germany-moves-closer-to-a-social-media-ban-for-those-under-16
18 comments
wild you will be able to drink alcohol before you can have a YouTube account.
comment made me think! I'm old so this was true since youtube didn't get big until i was in my 30s, so maybe it is a good thing :)
Or this kind of regulatory pressure will cause these businesses to stop adding social media functionality into their scope
You need to be 16 to drink beer or wine, so you will be able to do both at the same age.
14, if you're with a parent / old enough sibling / legal guardian, and they consent to it.
Wow. I didn’t know about this.
Digital ID will show who values their sovereignty. If you're willing to scan your face for a social network, you'll scan your face for everything else as well.
Welcome to the dystopian timeline.
Welcome to the dystopian timeline.
Luckily we have a digital id system that would preserve your privacy in Germany, so you'd not have to scan your face. All the social media site would get would be "is over 18".
I concede that you'd have to trust that the id systems real identity => per site pseudo id mapping is not disclosed to anyone.
I concede that you'd have to trust that the id systems real identity => per site pseudo id mapping is not disclosed to anyone.
Last time I read into this was when they introduced the first generation of these passports. You probably still need custom gov-certified hardware and some java application to make use of it?
Works with NFC and AusweisApp on reasonably modern phones.
I can see fragmentation of social media landscape, because children and teenagers will want to have their socials anyway so they will start using smaller and smaller providers or they will be forced to create their own microsocial networks.
It might be a business opportunity to have something ready and then sell teens white label application for small fee of server hosting. Or they can go even further and have it P2P decentralized like bitchat.
It might be a business opportunity to have something ready and then sell teens white label application for small fee of server hosting. Or they can go even further and have it P2P decentralized like bitchat.
> It might be a business opportunity to have something ready and then sell teens white label application for small fee of server hosting.
Jeez, you know we want our children to get away from this crap to begin with. Many parents are talking about reducing their kids social media exposure and want more friction to access.
You sound like the school yard drug dealer.
Jeez, you know we want our children to get away from this crap to begin with. Many parents are talking about reducing their kids social media exposure and want more friction to access.
You sound like the school yard drug dealer.
I mean isn't an elegant way how to bypass this regulation - teenagers running their own social networks only with their friends? If you will make it P2P nobody except them have control of their data. That sounds like a killer feature.
I wonder if this is just rambling of mine or if somebody will really pull this off.
I wonder if this is just rambling of mine or if somebody will really pull this off.
> control of their data.
This isn’t about privacy, it’s about the addictive design of social media.
This isn’t about privacy, it’s about the addictive design of social media.
Or about sharing nasty content which can't be effectively moderated..
Absolutely, that is responsible for teen suicides in my partners hometown.
Part of which is the massive nature of current social media platforms. Having way smaller/localer ones would most certainly also reduce the addictiveness of them.