Op-Ed: An EU-Wide Social Media Ban Misses The Mark

As EU countries debate banning social media for under-16s, Europe risks reaching for the wrong tool.

In her op-ed drawing on research by fellow researcher Jessica Galissaire, Lena-Maria Böswald argues that an EU-wide age ban sounds intuitive, but ultimately misses the real problem.

Europe already has some of the world’s strongest protections for minors online: the GDPR, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive, and the Digital Services Act all require age assurance and differentiated treatment of young users.

Europe should stop treating children as a shortcut to regulate platforms. Instead of new bans, we need safe algorithm design for everyone, long-term digital literacy, better mechanisms for parental consent, and regulators with the resources and clarity to enforce the laws we already have.