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New EU law: Children need permission to use Facebook
Lucie Rychla
December 16th, 2015
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This article is more than 9 years old.
If approved, children aged 13-16 years will need parental consent to use social media
The European Commission has proposed a new law that requires children in EU countries get a written consent from their parents or legal guardians before they can use social media, reports TV2.
As things stand, children in the EU must be at least 13 years old before they can use Facebook, Twitter and the like.
Easy to bypass
The new law suggests the age limit should be increased up to 16 years.
If approved, the EU member states will have two years to implement the law.
Each state can set the age limit individually, but it must be within the range of 13-16 years.
Critics point out complying with age limits is difficult already today, as children can easily enter a false date of birth when creating social media profiles.
Personal data protection
The proposal is part of a major reform on data protection that will affect also companies, which abuse or neglect to protect people’s online data such as social security numbers, bank details and other personal information.
Companies can be fined up to 4 percent of their total global revenue if they break the new law.
They must also inform authorities within 72 hours if they discover data breaches.
The law would apply to all companies that have customers in EU countries.
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