{"id":14331,"date":"2026-04-09T19:22:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/09\/pm-defends-planned-social-media-ban-for-young-says-gaming-online-gambling-next\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T19:22:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:22:20","slug":"pm-defends-planned-social-media-ban-for-young-says-gaming-online-gambling-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/09\/pm-defends-planned-social-media-ban-for-young-says-gaming-online-gambling-next\/","title":{"rendered":"PM defends planned social media ban for young, says gaming, online gambling next"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemscope=\"\" itemprop=\"associatedMedia\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n                                                                    <picture><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mitsotakis-2-320x200.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"600\" class=\"picture-main-block-image\" data-nxsrc=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mitsotakis-2.jpg\" alt=\"PM defends planned social media ban for young, says gaming, online gambling next\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mitsotakis-2-960x600.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n                        <\/source><\/picture>\n<p>File photo. [InTime News]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p>Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has defended the government\u2019s plan to ban teenagers under the age of 15 from using social media from next year, citing concerns over mental health, while indicating that gaming and online gambling will be the next sectors to face age-related restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>The prime minister announced the measure on TikTok on Wednesday, outlining the conservative New Democracy government\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n<p>In follow-up comments for an infokids.gr interview published Thursday, Mitsotakis criticized what he described as \u201cinfinite scrolling,\u201d arguing that social media platforms are designed to maximize user time online for profit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cParents are desperate,\u201d he said, adding that the new framework would give them \u201ctwo weapons\u201d: the ability to tell children that social media use is illegal under the new rules, and the introduction of mandatory age verification by platforms starting January 1, 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Mitsotakis said social media companies will be required to verify users\u2019 ages, while urging parents to consult the government platform parco.gov.gr for guidance on device settings and application restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>He stressed that the initiative is part of a broader strategy, announcing that gaming and online gambling will be addressed next. Artificial intelligence and its impact on education are also on government\u2019s agenda, Mitsotakis said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo we want artificial intelligence and these applications to do our children\u2019s homework, or should children do it themselves?\u201d he questioned. \u201cIt is a reality \u2013 let\u2019s not kid ourselves \u2013 it is already happening today as we speak.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n        var NXFBPixelFunc = function () {\n            document.removeEventListener(\"scroll\", NXFBPixelFunc);\n            setTimeout(function () {\n                !function (f, b, e, v, n, t, s) {\n                    if (f.fbq) return;\n                    n = f.fbq = function () {\n                        n.callMethod ?\n                            n.callMethod.apply(n, arguments) : n.queue.push(arguments)\n                    };\n                    if (!f._fbq) f._fbq = n;\n                    n.push = n;\n                    n.loaded = !0;\n                    n.version = '2.0';\n                    n.queue = [];\n                    t = b.createElement(e);\n                    t.async = !0;\n                    t.src = v;\n                    s = b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n                    s.parentNode.insertBefore(t, s)\n                }(window, document, 'script',\n                    'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n                fbq('init', '109138906120213');\n                fbq('track', 'PageView');\n            }, 0)\n        };\n        document.addEventListener(\"scroll\", NXFBPixelFunc);\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/in-depth\/society-in-depth\/1300630\/pm-defends-planned-social-media-ban-for-under-15s-gaming-online-gambling-next\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>File photo. [InTime News] Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has defended the government\u2019s plan to ban teenagers under the age of 15 from using social media from next year, citing concerns over mental health, while indicating that gaming and online gambling will be the next sectors to face age-related restrictions. The prime minister announced the measure &#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more-container\"><a title=\"PM defends planned social media ban for young, says gaming, online gambling next\" class=\"read-more button\" href=\"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/09\/pm-defends-planned-social-media-ban-for-young-says-gaming-online-gambling-next\/#more-14331\" aria-label=\"Read more about PM defends planned social media ban for young, says gaming, online gambling next\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/mitsotakis-2-960x600.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}