By Victoria Moreno Gil
Madrid, Spain_ The Spanish government’s plan to ban access to social media for children under 16 and to require age-verification systems has reignited the debate in Europe about how to protect children and adolescents online.
Australia became the first country to implement this measure by the end of 2025. Turkey recently approved a ban on social media access for minors under 15, while Spain, France, the United Kingdom, and Greece are taking steps toward a measure that has generated much controversy and has become one of the greatest challenges in digital regulation in recent decades.
Two years after the publication of his bestseller ‘The Anxious Generation’, which sparked a movement advocating for a childhood free of smartphones and social media, American author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt reflects in an interview with EFE on the consequences for adolescents and the need for regulation of these platforms that have not only caused “a mental health crisis” but are also “as addictive as gambling.”
Question. Have social media platforms destroyed an entire generation?
Answer. It has not destroyed them, but it has diminished them. We already see that test scores and IQ are beginning to drop. So once kids moved on to social media platforms, their social development and their education was diminished. So it’s not just the mental health crisis. It’s that they’re learning less. And this is before AI. Now with AI, they’re going to learn a lot less. They will be less intelligent, less educated, less confident than they would have been if they’d had a healthy human childhood. The good news is that any family that changes will get amazing results.
Q.: Is banning the solution?
A.: It’s not a ban. It’s an age limit. Civilized countries grant adults wide latitude to make choices for themselves. Civilized countries do not let companies exploit children. We put age limits on when there’s graphic sexuality and on all addictive substances, including gambling. Social media is exactly like gambling. When you pull down to refresh, when you pull down and then you get more…That was literally copied from slot machines. What we’re saying is that children cannot sign contracts with companies and give away their data and their rights without their parents’ knowledge or permission until 16. Social media is an inherently adult activity. You are talking with anonymous strangers. Millions of them are men who want sex with children, millions are sextortionists all around the world who prey on boys, teenage boys in developed countries. Many of these boys kill themselves because they’re so ashamed.
Q.: In Spain, far-right parties say the decision should come from families instead of authorities.
A.: Parents should be able to make the choice about how to raise their children. But this is a bizarre situation because here’s the choice that parents face. You have only two choices. You can either put your child onto a platform with sex predators and addiction, or you can isolate your child socially. Parents have been put in an impossible situation. And this is why surveys around the world show overwhelming support among parents for an age limit. And surveys are beginning to show that even young people, even teenagers, are about 50-50. They’re actually evenly split on whether they support or oppose an age limit. So in a democracy, if parents are overwhelmed, they’re overwhelmed by predatory companies who have been proven to be predatory. We know that they’re trying to addict children. Social media is essentially a consumer product. If there was any other consumer product in the world that had killed hundreds of thousands of children, that had made tens of millions sick, that company would have been sued into non-existence long ago. They would have been punished. They would have been forced to change.
Q.: Some people argue that this measure could lead to bad effects, such as an increase in fake accounts or that verification systems are not really effective.
A.: The Australian government is not verifying ages, it said the companies have to verify ages. And all of the companies complied. All of the companies are verifying ages. They’re using very crude methods. And a lot of kids are able to fool the methods. A lot of them use facial recognition. You scan the face. Does it look like the face of an adult or a child? So right
now, this is like day one of age verification on planet Earth. Before Dec. 10, there was no age verification required on this planet for social media. And now it’s starting. And right now, the methods still make a bunch of mistakes, but already they’re better. Apple just announced they can do age verification with perfect privacy preservation. Pornhub can just say, ‘is this device owned by someone who is or is this device someone who is over or under 18?’ They don’t know anything about the person. They just sit down and check, yes or no. So Australia has taken the first step and it’s not perfect, but it’s beginning to work. I just saw an article last month. There’s been a big increase in boys renting boats for fishing. Australian boys are going fishing. That’s great.
Q.: There is a current trend that advocates for that offline time among young people. Are they more conscious about this problem?
A.: This is one of the great things about Gen Z is that they see what’s happening. They are not in denial. They feel trapped. They’ve said this for years. We don’t like this, but we have to stay on it because everyone else is on it. So I think we are seeing a big increase in young people joining the movement. And I don’t know if this will come out in Spain. This is a children’s version of the book ( ) and it’s very, very effective.
So I think we are seeing not just high school students or older teenagers. I think we’re beginning to see 9, 10, 11-year-olds advocating for more independence and more free play.
Q.: You say that millennials were happier than Gen Z. Why?
A.: The millennials are the happiest generation in a long time. They had social media, but not until college, not until they were over 18. So they finished puberty before they got onto Instagram. Puberty is a sensitive period for brain development. And if you’re doing something for five hours a day, that’s going to shape your brain development. That’s why it’s so important that every country raised the age to 16, not 15. On the 15th birthday, almost all boys are still in puberty, as are a large number of girls.
Q.: How do social media platforms sell the idea of happiness today?
A.: They sell the idea of connection, friendship, fun and creativity. Meta tries to spin the narrative about social media in a positive way. And early social media, in 2005, there was no newsfeed. There was no algorithm. But since the early 2000s, the major platforms have become enshitified. It means turned into shit. And so now that everyone’s on it, we’re trapped. It’s very hard for people to quit, even though many or most people say they would like to quit if everybody else would quit.