Broad social media age restrictions fail to recognize the reality of the digital world

At a time when children and adolescents are increasingly being deprived of spaces for personal development and participation in the analog world, there is a risk that this marginalization will continue in the digital realm. The German Federal Youth Council (Bundesjugendring) firmly opposes efforts to deny young people access to social media through rigid age restrictions.

For the Bundesjugendring, it is crucial not to pit young people’s rights to protection against their rights to participation in digital spaces. The report published on April 20, 2026, by the Expert Commission on “Child and Youth Protection in the Digital World” further highlights the complexity of these issues and underscores that protection, empowerment, and participation must be considered together. Based on its position paper “Shaping Digital Participation Equitably—in, through, and across digital spaces” and its statement on the European Commission’s consultation on the Digital Fairness Act (DFA), the Bundesjugendring calls for policies that guarantee digital participation and hold platform operators accountable for making these spaces safe and fair.

Why Blanket Bans Are Not the Solution

Blanket age limits for social media platforms narrow the discussion on protection and participation by focusing on the exclusion of children and adolescents as a supposedly simple solution. However, blanket bans do not address the root of the problems:

• The key risks arise from manipulative platform logic and design, as well as business models that amplify problematic content, capture attention, foster addiction, and exploit personal data. They do not arise simply because young people use social media. A ban would therefore only scratch the surface, rather than addressing the structural causes of the problems, which can have harmful effects even beyond younger age groups.
• The expert commission’s assessment confirms the real and serious problems young people face in digital spaces: hate, hate speech, sexualized violence, disinformation, bullying, and significant social pressure. Girls, young women, and other marginalized groups are particularly affected, as they are pushed out of digital discourse spaces by digital violence and intersectional discrimination. Policy measures must be judged by whether they actually improve protection without simultaneously restricting participation rights or shifting platforms’ responsibility onto children, adolescents, and families. Blanket bans shift the problem to less regulated and harder-to-monitor spaces.
• The European legal framework is already largely in place with the Digital Services Act; it is currently being further developed at the EU level through the Digital Fairness Act. The expert commission’s assessment indicates that the fully harmonizing nature of the Digital Services Act severely limits the scope for national deviations. Instead of national debates on bans, what is needed above all is the consistent, data-protection-compliant implementation of the existing legal framework in the interest of young users.

The Bundesjugendring therefore advocates an approach based on children’s and youth rights that is grounded in the realities of young people’s lives and considers protection and participation as a unified whole:

Digital participation is a right of children and youth

Every protective measure for children and youth must be based on the principles of children’s rights. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child grants young people in the digital space not only rights to protection, but also rights to information, freedom of expression, participation, social interaction, privacy, self-actualization, and co-determination. Digital spaces are part of their everyday reality and, at the same time, part of the democratic public sphere. They are places for exchange, learning, the formation of political opinions, and social engagement. Anyone who blanketly excludes young people from these spaces therefore restricts not only media use but also social participation and democratic engagement.

Effectively Holding Platforms Accountable

Platforms must be subject to binding regulations that systematically integrate protection into their design—through “Safety, Privacy, and Child Rights by Design.” This includes effective youth protection filters that shield against inappropriate content, as well as low-threshold, effective, and transparent reporting and complaint channels against hate and (sexualized) violence. It is crucial that the safety and data protection of young people take precedence over commercial interests. Platforms must not be designed in a way that allows them to profit financially from risky use, aggressive personalization, or data-driven content delivery.

A European legal framework already exists in the form of the Digital Services Act. The ongoing legislative process for the Digital Fairness Act could further address existing gaps in protection. Instead of debates about bans, what is needed is the consistent implementation and further development of this legal framework to make social networks safer.

Limiting Manipulative Platform Logic

This also includes effectively limiting manipulative and addiction-promoting mechanisms. Endless scrolling, autoplay, dark patterns, aggressive personalization, and other design elements are not merely convenience features. They shape user behavior, reinforce dependence on platforms, and can place a particular strain on young people. Such mechanisms should be subject to regulation.

Age Verification Jeopardizes Participation and Data Protection

As soon as age verification systems become a prerequisite for access to digital public spaces, significant tensions arise with regard to participation, anonymity, non-discrimination, and data protection. Young people need protected digital spaces for confidential discussions—for example, about sexuality, gender identity, experiences of discrimination, disability, or mental health. Such spaces are often only possible under conditions of anonymity or pseudonymity. General identification or real-name requirements are therefore incompatible with them. From the perspective of youth organizations, such self-governed spaces are essential for the development and education of self-determined, responsible, and socially competent individuals. The role of legislation is to create a safe framework for this—not to effectively eliminate these spaces through excessive regulation.

For this reason, the Bundesjugendring opposes blanket age verification as a prerequisite for access. The policy paper published jointly with other organizations makes it clear that age verification can only be considered under strict conditions that respect fundamental rights and children’s rights. It is crucial that only an age group be verified, without disclosing identities. The procedure must be designed in compliance with data protection regulations and follow the principle of data minimization; at the same time, anonymity, unobservability, and unlinkability must be ensured—ideally through the use of zero-knowledge procedures. Furthermore, age verification must not create new forms of exclusion and must remain accessible to structurally disadvantaged individuals.

Strengthening Media Literacy and Digital Youth Work

It is equally clear that protection in the digital space does not arise solely through regulation and technical barriers. It also requires empowerment. Media literacy and digital youth work are therefore not a secondary supplementary program, but a central component of an effective protection strategy.

Young people must be empowered to use digital spaces safely, critically, and autonomously. This requires the sustained strengthening and funding of media education in schools and extracurricular settings, resources for professionals and volunteers, and reliable structures in which protection and empowerment are considered together. The expert commission also points out that existing programs are not sufficiently well-known or interconnected.

Mandatory Participation of Young People

At the same time, young people’s perspectives must be mandatorily incorporated into the regulation, evaluation, and monitoring of digital platforms in accordance with the quality standards for child and youth participation. Neither the national expert commission established by Youth Minister Karin Prien nor the special committee on child safety online appointed at the EU level by Ursula von der Leyen is implementing sufficient, structural youth participation in accordance with these quality standards. It is essential that laws be developed in collaboration with young people and their democratically legitimate representatives, rather than being decided over their heads. As experts on their own lived experiences, young people contribute indispensable experiential knowledge regarding their protection needs. Only when regulation takes the lived realities of those affected seriously will it gain the necessary acceptance and prevent protective measures from being rendered ineffective by circumvention strategies.