Across the world, something is shifting. Parents, teachers, and policymakers are waking up to a difficult truth: today’s young people are growing up inside digital ecosystems that were never built with their well-being in mind. And in Georgia—where teens scroll, post, compare, and connect as intensely as their peers in Europe, the US, and Australia—this global awakening feels especially urgent. Families and educators see the effects daily: kids who can’t sleep, who tie their self-worth to likes, who vanish into endless video feeds that move faster than their brains can process.
EUROPE: A RARE MOMENT OF CONSENSUS
In 2025, the European Union signaled a major turning point. The European Commission unveiled its 2030 consumer protection agenda and made one thing clear: children online deserve far stronger protections. They emphasized that young people are not just everyday users—they are vulnerable, and often the early adopters of risky digital products they don’t yet understand.
Alongside this agenda, the EU launched an unprecedented, EU-wide inquiry into how social media affects children’s mental health—proof that this is no longer seen as a minor issue, but a public health one.
Minors are particularly vulnerable consumers — European Commission, 2030 Agenda
Political leaders have echoed this urgency. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen publicly criticized the toll social media takes on teen mental health, and in France, President Emmanuel Macron went even further, calling for younger teens to be banned from social media entirely.
AUSTRALIA: THE MOST AGGRESSIVE MOVE YET
While Europe debates, Australia has already acted—and decisively.
Children under 16 are now barred from creating accounts on major social-media platforms. Meta has begun shutting down profiles belonging to 13–15-year-olds on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads.
Meta, trying to reassure the public, put it this way: “Teens are resourceful… but we’re committed to meeting our compliance obligations.”
The Australian government argues the ban is essential. The Prime Minister described it as a way of “letting kids be kids.” The country’s e-Safety Commissioner was even more direct, saying the goal is to protect young people from “pressures and risks they can be exposed to while logged in to social media accounts.”
A GLOBAL TREND TAKES SHAPE
Australia may be at the front, but it is not alone. Countries around the world are reconsidering what age children should be allowed to enter commercial digital spaces.
• Denmark has proposed banning access for children under 15, enforced through strict age verification.
• Norway wants to raise the minimum age for social media from 13 to 15.
• Sweden’s Social Democrats, in opposition, have proposed a strict age-15 limit, mandatory ID verification, and new protections against deepfakes and online abuse. As party leader Magdalena Andersson put it: “We need to protect children and young people from addictive algorithms.”
Parents should not assume that “magical codes” or new laws will make everything safe. Children still need active protection.
Even gaming platforms are being scrutinized. Roblox, long treated as a harmless children’s space, has introduced mandatory age checks and new restrictions to stop kids from chatting with adult strangers.
Its CEO, Dave Baszucki, offered blunt parental advice: “If you’re not comfortable, don’t let your kids be on Roblox.”
In the UK, despite the new Online Safety Act, a BBC investigation revealed teens still being shown content involving bullying, suicide, violence, weapons, and illness. The NSPCC responded simply: “More needs to be done.”
THE EU PARLIAMENT RAISES THE BAR
In 2025, the European Parliament stepped in. The Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee adopted a landmark report warning that children continue to face:
• addiction risks,
• mental-health harms,
• illegal content,
• and manipulative design—all while platforms fail to act.
Their proposed changes are some of Europe’s strongest yet:
• A digital minimum age of 16 for social media, video-sharing sites, and AI “companions” (unless a parent consents).
• A compulsory minimum age of 13 for any social-media use.
• A ban on engagement-based recommender algorithms for minors.
• Mandatory safety-by-design requirements.
• Bans on profiling minors, loot boxes, and other addictive features.
• Strict limits on “kidfluencing.”
• Controls on AI-powered nudity apps and manipulative chatbots.
• In severe cases, personal liability for senior management.
Rapporteur Christel Schaldemose summed up the mood: “We need a higher bar for access to social media… and stronger safeguards for minors.”
THE SAME STRUGGLES APPEAR IN GEORGIA
The issues pushing Europe and Australia to act are already clear in Georgia:
• Rising anxiety and depression, especially among girls facing impossible beauty ideals.
• Sleep disruption as late-night scrolling replaces rest.
• Cyberbullying that spills into real-life conflicts.
• Difficulty focusing, studying, and staying present.
• Withdrawal from friends, hobbies, and activities.
• Repeated exposure to violence, fear-based content, and self-harm narratives—often suggested algorithmically after only a few clicks.
Georgian teens are no less digitally immersed and no less vulnerable than their peers abroad. The systems shaping their childhoods are the same—and so are the risks.
A MOMENT OF CHOICE FOR GEORGIA
Georgia has not yet taken steps as dramatic as Australia or Sweden. But the global message is becoming impossible to ignore: children cannot be left to navigate infinite feeds, predatory engagement loops, and manipulative algorithms on their own.
One UK expert issued a warning that resonates far beyond Britain: parents should not assume that “magical codes” or new laws will make everything safe. Children still need active protection.
For Georgia, this worldwide movement is not some distant debate. It’s a chance—perhaps the last before digital harms become even more deeply rooted—to rethink the online world shaping its youngest generation.
Around the world, adults are finally stepping up.
The question now is whether Georgia will join them—or risk being left behind while a generation grows up inside systems never built for their protection.
By Katie Ruth Davies
