Another country to ban social media access for under-16s

Australia became the first country to ban social media for children under 16 in December

Spain plans to ban access to social media for children under 16, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Tuesday.

He said the government would begin the process of passing legislation as early as next week.

Sanchez's left-wing coalition government has previously complained about the proliferation of hate speech, pornographic content and disinformation on social media, saying it had negative effects on young people.

"Our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate alone... We will no longer accept that," Sanchez said as he addressed the World Government Summit in Dubai, calling on other European countries to implement similar measures.

"We will protect them from the digital Wild West," he added.

Australia became the first country to ban social media for children under 16 in December, a move being closely watched by other countries considering similar age-based measures, such as Britain and France.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced several measures to guarantee a safe digital environment (AP)

Sanchez said Spain had joined five other European countries that he dubbed the "Coalition of the Digitally Willing” to coordinate and enforce cross-border regulation.

The coalition will hold its first meeting in the coming days, he said. Sanchez did not say which countries were in the group, and his office didn't immediately respond to a request for clarification.

"We know that this is a battle that far exceeds the boundaries of any country," he said.

Spain will also introduce a bill next week to hold social media executives accountable for illegal and hate-speech content, as well as to criminalise algorithmic manipulation and the amplification of illegal content, Sanchez said.

Among the measures he proposed was a system to track hate speech online, while platforms would be required to introduce age verification systems that "were not just check boxes", he said, adding that prosecutors would explore ways to investigate possible legal infractions by Elon Musk's Grok, TikTok and Instagram.