In the eighteen months after Australia became the first country to ban social media for under-16s, the policy crossed the Atlantic and the English Channel. By May 2026, five European countries had either passed or actively legislated their own variants. France, Greece, Denmark and Cyprus settled on 15 as the cutoff. Turkey landed on 15 too, but with a markedly different enforcement model that has drawn criticism from civil liberties groups.
Cyprus has become the latest European country to ban social media for children. On April 16, 2026, President Nikos Christodoulides announced that children under 15 will no longer be allowed to use social media platforms in Cyprus.
The announcement comes just one day after the European Commission declared its age verification app technically ready for deployment — and just eight days after neighboring Greece announced its own under-15 ban.
What Is Being Banned?
The ban targets social media platforms built around user-generated content and algorithmic feeds:
Greece has announced it will ban children under 15 from using social media — and the announcement came in an unusual way. On April 8, 2026, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis posted a video on TikTok to announce a ban on… TikTok (and other platforms) for young users.
“We decided to proceed with something difficult but necessary — banning access to social media for children under 15,” the Prime Minister said in his video message.