Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil has voiced support for the demands put forward by the SPD parliamentary group to prohibit social‑media use for children under the age of 14. “We can no longer accept the lack of clear rules and restrictions that the SPD proposal seeks to introduce” he told “Der Spiegel”. “The protection of young people from the flood of hate and violence on social media is of paramount importance”.
Klingbeil criticised platforms that deliberately design their business models around maximum attention, polarization, and data exploitation, leaving children and adolescents frequently defenseless. He urged operators to better protect users, arguing that “those doing business in Europe bear responsibility for the safety of young people just as they do for protecting adults”. “Platforms must serve the people who use them, not the reverse” he added.
In a position paper released by the SPD faction in the Bundestag on Sunday, as reported by the ARD Hauptstadtstudio, members called for a graded set of regulations based on age. According to the proposal, providers would be required to block access for anyone under 14 “technically effectively”. For users aged 15 to 16, a mandatory youth version of the platform would need to be introduced, free from algorithmically driven feeds and personalized recommendations, and devoid of features such as endless scrolling, auto‑play of content, push notifications or gamification. The paper also stipulates that violations will trigger sanctions.
