Cyprus expects to have the technical groundwork for legislation setting 15 as the minimum age for creating and maintaining social media accounts ready by early 2027, Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Nikodemos Damianou said.
Speaking on Alpha’s midday programme, Damianou confirmed that the government intends to set 15 as an age barrier for account creation on specific social media platforms, without requiring parental consent. He said a working group had already been established and had studied the legislative framework, and that consultation with the Commissioner for Children’s Rights would follow.
On which platforms would be covered, Damianou said the obvious major social media platforms would be included, along with others to be determined during the legislative drafting process. He cited addictive gaming websites with a high potential to influence children as one example of the broader scope under consideration. The government is also in contact with other EU member states to learn from their own legislative processes, he said.
Damianou stressed that Cyprus could not act alone, saying the EU needed a uniform, horizontal solution applicable to all member states. He added, however, that each member state retained the right to set its own age threshold. If Cyprus enacted its own legislation, he said, it would be able to impose sanctions on non-compliant platforms, provided the law was harmonised with other applicable legislation.
On age verification, Damianou explained that when a minor attempted to create an account, verification would be achieved by linking to national population registry systems and integrating that mechanism into Cyprus’s Digital Citizen app. He noted that teenagers aged 14 and above were already integrated into the Digital Citizen system.
Damianou also underlined the importance of a common EU policy on age restrictions, saying coordinated action across member states would strengthen pressure on platforms to comply with national laws.
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