Parliament majority favors motion for age limit on addictive social media sites

The Tweede Kamer has called for an age limit for social media sites that use addicting techniques. The lower house of Dutch parliament made this appeal by adopting a motion by D66, NSC, CDA, ChristenUnie, and SGP. The Cabinet is already working on the guidelines for this and now know they are supported in this. PVV, VVD, FVD, and DENK voted against the motion.

The motion mentioned 15-years-old as a potential age limit, but this has not been decided definitively as of yet. Australia recently announced plans to ban social media for children under 16. The minimum age in the Netherlands needs to become a “norm” for social media, according to the Tweede Kamer. However, it is unclear how hard this norm will be and who will be responsible for enforcing it.

“An addiction subject is damaging for all ages,” the parties wrote. In any case, children without a fully grown and defensible brain, need protection, according to the parties. “Technology companies are not succeeding in offering a safe and healthy environment for our children.”

State Secretary for Youth, Prevention and Sport, Vincent Karremans promised during a debate last month that he would produce an advice for a minimum age for social media and a recommended amount of screen time for children. The Tweede Kamer is asking Karremans to do his best to work with other countries in order to make rules for technology companies.

"We are concerned with the addictive design," said one of the initiators, Hanneke van der Werf of D66. "I am not against 13-year-olds sending their parents a message that they will be back from training at 8:30 p.m.. instead of 8:00 p.m."

"The adolescent brain is still too vulnerable," Van der Werf explained. "For this kind of young brain, an addiction is harder to resist than for a fully grown person. That's why you should only expose children to these kinds of temptations after that period. We have also set age limits in many other areas that are not 11, 12, and 13. You don't put a 13-year-old behind a slot machine either."

But children's rights organization Terre des Hommes came out against the Tweede Kamer measure. The organization thinks tech companies should be taken to task, as opposed to punishing children.

"Politics and tech companies have failed to improve online safety and children are now the victims of this," said Karlijn Straver, expert in online sexual abuse at Terre des Hommes. Children grow up in both an online and offline world and it is therefore important to "address the real problem that causes excessive use of social media, namely the addictive algorithms and the role of big tech in this."

Straver thinks it would be more useful if there was more education about social media in schools, and if parents talked to their children about it more often, for example. "Many parents think they know what their child does online, but in fact they only know a fraction of it. In this way, parents and their children can learn to recognize possible risks better and deal with them in a good way." She thinks the age limit also affects the rights of children.