Greece is set to roll out drastic measures to limit children under the age of 15 from accessing social media, making it one of the most ambitious efforts in Europe to protect children from the online world.
A high-ranking government official has confirmed on February 3, 2026, that the government is on the cusp of announcing this measure, making Greece a leader in a European effort to regulate children’s online behavior.
This comes at a particularly important time. Spain has just passed a ban on social media for children under the age of 16, and other European countries are waiting to see how these trailblazing initiatives play out. But Greece’s strategy is clearly different from its European counterparts.
How is Greece Re-imagining Digital Safety in the EU?
At the centre of Greece’s proposal is the Kids Wallet app developed by the state, which parents will install on their children’s devices to implement the restrictions. Once implemented, the app will restrict access to popular social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (previously Twitter), and YouTube.
The app will restrict access even if the user is not logged in, making it a comprehensive barrier that goes beyond account restrictions.
The restrictions are not limited to social media platforms. Children under the age of 18 will also be restricted from gambling websites, tobacco/alcohol sales platforms, and adult content.
Greek authorities believe that this is a holistic approach to digital child protection, using the European Union’s Digital Services Act framework to create a barrier that other EU countries may follow.
However, the road to implementation has not been smooth sailing. The initial strategies were aimed at a launch in October 2025, but as of early 2026, the government is still waiting for the final political sign-off.
This is partly due to coordination with the European Union, which is launching pilot projects in several countries. France, Spain, Denmark, and Italy are all taking part in these collaborative projects, sharing data and best practices as they chart the complex landscape of digital regulation.
Why Greece’s Device-Level Ban Outshines the Rest
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been vocal about his support for these policies, likening social media to an “uncontrolled experiment” being carried out on the developing minds of children.
His administration has already demonstrated its commitment to taking a bold stance on this issue, having previously banned mobile phones in schools, which indicates a certain wariness about giving young people unlimited access to digital technology.
What makes Greece stand out from other nations introducing similar bans is the focus on device-level measures. Although the Australian ban on under-16 platforms, which came into effect in December 2025, is largely centered on age verification during the account-signup process, the Kids Wallet platform in Greece is more fundamentally based.
This, in theory, is airtight, as it prevents so-called clever kids from working around the system by setting up multiple accounts or accessing platforms without logging in.
The significance of this difference is that it fundamentally changes who is responsible for the problem. Rather than leaving it to social media companies to ensure that only people over a certain age are allowed to access their platforms, Greece is placing the power in the hands of parents using technology supplied by their government.
How Greece is Reimagining Child Safety in a Connected World
One of the areas where there is still some uncertainty is with regard to messaging apps such as WhatsApp. These services are in a bit of a twilight zone, as they are social media but are also a necessary tool for educational coordination and family communication.
The Greek government is still trying to determine how it wants to handle these services, as it realizes that a complete ban could create some issues for families and educational institutions while also potentially disrupting the educational system’s increasingly digital infrastructure.
As Greece is about to make its official announcement, the country is part of a growing global movement that is faced with the same questions.
From Australia to Spain, governments are increasingly convinced that the risks associated with unlimited social media access are real and threaten child development and mental health. The question is no longer whether something should be done, but how.
For Greece, the Kids Wallet app is a kind of wager that technology can provide the solution to problems that technology has itself created. Whether or not this wager is successful has implications that extend well beyond the borders of Greece, potentially influencing how democracies around the world deal with the problem of raising children in a connected world.
