For the government’s plan to ban the social media to children under 15 spoke to on Wednesday morning the Minister of Family and Social Cohesion, Sophia Zaharaki, on the occasion of the universal ban on use in children and in Australia.

“Under 15s to have parental controls – All countries intend to tighten measures”

“The digital threat has two faces. It’s not just that kids stay glued to digital media and social media. They isolate themselves too much and it has a twin danger: the part of depression and digital isolation, where they think they have a friend and create a fictitious world, without living out there”, said the minister constructively, to add:

“Especially this year, the government took strict measures. We have banned mobiles, with very strict clauses and punishments currently in school for mobile use and we see that the Prime Minister has said that much stricter measures will be taken. I don’t know if we will get to the part of the ban, at the European level we see in all countries that there is an intention to tighten the measures for the ages under 15”.

In particular, he referred to the platform that will be implemented for parental control and restrictions, where as a parent you go in and put prohibition clauses for both keywords and the use of certain media, but also watch who the child is talking to. “We refer to all pages, keywords horizontally govern the use of digital media. If you close social media with the logic of the words clause, there are alternative places where children meet. There are so-called dark rooms that even we don’t know where children can find them.”

Asked about the parents’ attitude towards such a possibility, Mrs. Zaharakis stated that they are ambivalent, expressing their strong concern, but without wanting to exclude their children from socializing through technology. “But that is one thing and threats via the Internet are another. Freedom is also a framework, just like security. Technology can also become an ally against the misuse of technology.”