On 12 November 2026, Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence Minister Dimitris Papastergiou and State Minister Akis Skertsos held a series of meetings in Athens with representatives from Meta Platforms, TikTok and Microsoft to discuss how to implement age‑verification mechanisms for a new law that will ban children under 15 from using social media on 1 January 2027. The meetings followed a series of earlier talks in November with the same companies and a forthcoming meeting with Google, as reported by Kathimerini.
The law, approved by Parliament on 23 October, removes all use of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Threads and other platforms by people born before 1 January 2013. The ban applies even to users who already have accounts and contains no parental override. The legislation and the meeting agenda come in response to research cited by the Greek delegation that found more than one in two students in the first three high‑school grades had begun using social media at ages 10 to 12, and that one in four of that cohort felt they used social media excessively and one in five felt insecure or distracted when denied mobile‑phone access.
According to a statement released by the Greek government, “The aim is for platforms to design and present reliable age‑verification mechanisms that they will put into effect from January 1.” The statement said that the platforms would be required to present specific plans by the beginning of December. The government will hold the platforms accountable for any breaches of the law, not the children or their parents, the statement added.
The aim is for platforms to design and present reliable age‑verification mechanisms that they will put into effect from January 1.
Name: Greek Government Statement
Source: BTA (1998) Byline: Athens, 12.11.2026 16:10 (BTA)
While the Greek side has outlined the legal framework and the enforcement model, the tech companies have not yet issued public statements on the upcoming ban. The meeting schedule indicates that both the government and the companies are still negotiating the details of age verification, with the potential for collaboration on user data handling and verification workflows. The Greek authorities welcome inputs from the industry on how best to meet the compliance deadlines as part of their broader effort to protect children from potentially harmful online content.
The broader context for the ban reflects a global trend. Recent policy proposals in other countries, such as the United Kingdom’s plans to restrict access for children under 16, and the discussions in Austria and Canada, suggest that governments are becoming increasingly proactive about regulating children’s engagement with social‑media platforms. According to the Greek law, any platform that fails to implement the required age‑verification system will face legal penalties, signaling a shift toward holding companies accountable for the safety of young users.
