BY ERIC KING
Member states of the European Union will set their own age limits for social media use following a lack of consensus between them with respect to a uniform policy.
A previous proposal to ban social media networks including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other services from processing personal data belonging to under-16s without parental consent will now be abandoned in light of new age limits to be set by EU states.
Member states of the European Union will now set their own age limits for social media use following a lack of consensus between them with respect to a uniform policy. Under the previous proposal, social media companies would have been barred from offering their services to young people. But after technology firms lobbied against the idea, European Parliament’s lea MEP Jan Phillip Albrecht announced that ”member states will now be free to set their own limits between 13 and 16 years.
CONSENT
A uniform age of consent starting at 13 years was subsequently proposed by the European Commission and European Parliament in conformity with most of Europe, although Spanish laws have set their boundaries to Facebook and all social media organisations at 14 years of age. However, strong objections have made made about the decision to shift the age limit to 13 years of age, with some saying that the age of 16 is the more appropriate age.
The debate seems pretty straight forward. 13 year olds are too young to make an informed decision on important things advertised to them by social media networks. Furthermore, they would need money from their parents to purchase anything they want unless they were getting the money from questionnable sources. It would seem that social media companies are purely being greedy in wanting to influence 13 year old by bombarding them with all sorts and putting pressure on them to pressurize their parents or resort to illegal means. Common sense suggests that they stick to 16 years of age in the same manner as all other important laws that has already set 16 as the adult age of consent.
