Spain and 10 other countries are calling on the EU to enforce age verification for minors to access social media.

The Spanish government, along with 10 other European countries, asked the European Commission on Wednesday to include mandatory age verification for minors' access to social media platforms .

"Spain, along with other European partners, will propose to the European Commission that age verification using effective tools to protect minors be mandatory for accessing social media, " announced the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Service, Óscar López, on Wednesday during his participation in the 'DigitalES Summit' held in Madrid.

The Spanish government has submitted this request through a letter signed by Minister Óscar López and the Minister of Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Pilar Alegría, along with representatives from the governments of Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the Walloon Region (Belgium).

In the text, they urge the Commission to "abandon the current status quo regarding online age assurance methods and consider mandatory age verification for access to social media platforms as an indispensable and appropriate measure, given the risks involved."

The signatories thus call for a shift from current methods that simply ask the user for their age to truly effective age verification tools, such as, for example, a digital identity provided by official agencies.

The letter, sent to the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, Henna María Virkkunen, and to the Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Skills, Education, Quality Employment and Social Rights, Roxana Mînzatu, defends the need for this initiative to guarantee the mental health and well-being of minors when using the Internet.

Specifically, the Spanish minister recalled some of the data collected in official reports that warn of the risks to children's mental health, sleep quality, and academic performance, such as the fact that one in three young people spends more than three hours a day on social media.

This new measure follows the proposal that Spain, France, and Greece presented on June 6th to the EU Council of Telecommunications Ministers held in Luxembourg, which aims to protect minors from internet risks, such as access to pornography. The draft proposes measures to create a safer digital environment for children.

Specifically, it calls for all internet-enabled devices available on the European market to be required to have age verification and parental control tools. It also proposes introducing a European Digital Age of Majority , leaving it open to each Member State to set the age, and recommends requiring age-appropriate online designs, minimizing addictive and persuasive architectures such as pop-ups, profile customization, and autoplaying videos.

It's worth remembering that Spain is already participating with this application in the European pilot launched by the European Commission to provide an age verification tool that serves as a common basis for each country to adapt to its national situation. This aims to encourage all tools to be interoperable with each other to be more effective against large platforms.