AssetID: 55435830
Headline: UNCAPTIONED: Spain Will Ban Under-16s From Accessing Social Media to Strengthen Digital Protection
Caption: Spain Will Ban Under-16s From Accessing Social Media to Strengthen Digital Protection. Spain will ban children under the age of 16 from accessing social media, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced during a summit of world leaders in Dubai. The government will also introduce further measures aimed at strengthening child safety online, protecting users’ fundamental rights and curbing the spread of hate speech on the internet. To ensure the effectiveness of the new rules, the manipulation of algorithms will be classified as a criminal offence, while platform executives will be held legally responsible for violations. “We cannot tolerate this any longer,” Sánchez said. The plan includes penalties for companies that allow illegal content to circulate. Sánchez said he will ask prosecutors to investigate potential offences already committed on platforms such as Grok, TikTok and Instagram. Other European countries, including the UK and France, are also considering banning under-16s from social media. Sánchez confirmed that Spain has joined the so-called “Coalition of the Willing for Digital Affairs” to coordinate action. The new package of measures will be presented to the Council of Ministers next week. It will also introduce a system of “tracking, measurement and traceability” to record what Sánchez described as a “Footprint of Hate and Polarisation”. The prime minister strongly criticised what he called the permissive attitude of social media platforms toward disinformation, scams and even child sexual abuse material, as well as attacks on personal privacy. Sánchez urged greater international cooperation to tackle what he described as a “failed state” online — a space “where laws are ignored, crimes are tolerated and more than half of users suffer hate attacks”. Instructions: THIS VIDEO MUST NOT BE EDITED FOR LENGTH TO COMBINE WITH OTHER CONTENT
Keywords: Current Affairs & Politics,Spain,Pedro Sánchez,social media ban,under-16s,digital protection,hate speech,Grok,TikTok,Instagram,algorithm manipulation,online safety,Coalition of the Willing for Digital Affairs,social media regulation,child protection,digital rights,online harm,internet safety,misinformation,hate speech laws,platform accountability,European policy,technology regulation
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