Govt to restrict children’s social media use

The government is going to impose restrictions on use of the social media by underage children from next year, reported the national broadcaster Yle.

The authorities will introduce local criteria in this regard to ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union, which will come into effect from May 25, 2018.

A working committee of the Ministry of Justice already proposed a new personal data protection law recently that would complement the Data Protection Regulation of the EU.

Following the changes, the authorities will set an age limit for use of the social media in the country, although the age limit is not finalised yet.

“In terms of the data protection regulation, the age limit is in principle 16 years, but at the national level, it may be defined between 13 and 16 years,” Anu Talus, the justice ministry’s legislative counsellor told Yle.

In practice, implementation of the regulation means that in the future underage users will need the consent of their mothers, fathers or other guardians to sign up for social media services, said the Yle report.