As the call to introduce a minimum age limit for social media in the Netherlands has gotten more and more support, it is becoming increasingly likely that age restrictions will be put in place. However, which age limit to use remains a bone of contention.
Support for a social media age limit is growing in the Dutch House of Representatives. A few weeks after D66 proposed limiting the use of social media for children aged 15 years or older, coalition parties VVD and NSC expressed their support for the initiative.
There is only disagreement on which age to use for the limit: VVD would prefer to make the threshold a lower age of 13 years. “We believe that anything above the age of 13 is a false sense of security,” VVD member Rosmarijn Dral told RTL Nieuws. “That's because the current generation of children grew up with social media, you can't get them off it. Moreover, 13 is the age at which you move from primary school to secondary school."
Also in favour of introducing a minimum age limit for social media, the NSC proposes taking the question of what age to use to the parents and children themselves. "To determine how high that age should be, I want to quickly organise a so-called citizens' council,” said NSC member Jesse Six Dijkstra. “Then we will gather a reflection of the population, including young people, and they can recommend an age."
Critics are becoming more and more concerned about the impact of social media on children, especially with regard to addiction and mental health risks. Parents are evidently also worried - in an RTL Nieuws survey of 20.000 families with children under 18, 79 percent supported the idea of a social media age limit for children under 15 years old.
In 2023, the Ministry of Education noted the negative impact social media and the use of mobile phones can have on children in school. For this reason, the government recommended that schools introduce a phone ban. Research showed that students in schools with phone bans experienced less bullying and talked to each other more often.
"Big tech has made the business model of addictive apps and games. That is an unfair battle with the brains of children," said Michiel van Nispen from SP. Doubting whether the measure will work, SP believes that the addictive elements of social media need to be tackled with a ban, and if that fails then an age limit can be put in place.
Barbara Kathman from GroenLinks/PvdA states that the party doesn’t see how a social media age limit will solve the problem. "The most important thing is to intervene hard on the unhealthy and addictive design of these platforms,” she said “They do not have to be harmful, that is how they are made and we should no longer accept that."
Instead, the party wants there to be guidance for parents, with a classification system similar to those for movies, for parents so they know what is recommended for their children when it comes to social media. Marching forward despite the opposition, D66 is continuing with the proposal. “Parents are desperate for guidance and standards. It’s critical that we demand changes from tech companies, ideally at the European level. Together with other countries, we can push for a minimum age of 15.”