With Antigoni Davis, Vice President of Meta responsible for security, and with other company executives, Kyriakos Mitsotakis met on Friday at the Maximos Mansion.

During the meeting, the META delegation reiterated the Company’s full support to Greece’s proposal to establish a single digital adulthood in the European Union, which requires parents’ consent to access minors to digital services, including social media.

It was also recognized the leadership role Greece has taken on the pan -European debate on the protection of children and adolescents from inappropriate content and the risk of digital addiction.

There have been the possibilities of parental control and age certification available to the Greek Kids Wallet application, which has been presented at the European Union level, and discussed the possibilities of cooperation between states and social media to shape the most effective protection personalities for underage users.

At the start of the meeting, Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Antigoni Davis had the following dialogue (informal translation from English):

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Thank you for your presence here, I believe that we have to discuss a very important issue that concerns us all, and this is the protection of our children from internet addiction and the dangers that are in the digital world. It is an issue that is very concerned about. I even put it at the United Nations level, I took part in part of my speech last year to emphasize the importance of a global reaction to this problem.

As we will discuss, we have taken some very interesting initiatives in creating a platform that does two things: informs parents about existing parental control tools, but also offers a well -tested way to ensure that we know the true age of those who use digital applications so that we can access digital applications.

Antigoni Davies

This is an initiative, Kids Wallet, presented at the European Union level. I believe he has gained great momentum and gaining great support. When we talked about this problem in Greece, we received really positive comments from parents, but also from children, who recognize that this is a problem that needs to be addressed.

I will repeat it: I am in favor of working with the “big players” in the field of technology in order to find solutions that will be beneficial for everyone, because I know that you also realize that there is a problem that needs to be addressed, and this is not something we can do on our own. We can follow two ways to deal with it: adopt a very conflicting approach or try to adopt a collaborative approach. I am very much in favor of the second choice and finding solutions that will include the designers of the products used by our children and adolescents.

I think it’s really the right time to make this conversation. I was very influenced by a book that you know very well, Jonathan Hyde’s “The Anxious Generation”. He points out that it took us many decades to place seat belts in cars. Now we know what the problem is to face. We have the tools. The question is whether we have the will and ability to create an appropriate regulatory framework in which each partner will take on his own share of responsibility.

Therefore, it makes me very happy that you wanted to discuss this issue with us and thank you for your visit to Athens. “

Antigoni Davis: I want to thank you, first of all, for your invitation. I know the legacy of my name, something I get quite seriously.

I would also like to thank you and recognize your leadership role, your own and your government in this area, especially the technical role you have in the development of a system with which we can verify age. We agree, as you do, that this should be done at the operating system or device level and we really appreciate the leadership approach you followed. So thank you very much, and thank you for your cooperation.

We are ardent supporters of the age of digital adulthood, as you know. We believe that it should be linked to parental approval, as we believe it should be consistently applied by the whole industry, but we believe that this is the right path forward. Like you, I agree that it is important to think about how to put children able to safely use these types of tools that are, in the end, particularly important, in fields of creativity, exploration, we want to be able to protect this. But also to ensure both teenagers and their parents can participate. And this will be achieved in this way.

You know, I have been at Meta for 11 years and for at least this time we have focused on how to apply the right tools. We have more than 50 tools. We recently inaugurated the Teen Accounts, who won an award in Spain for our efforts. Teen accounts are designed to implement the right defaults for adolescents, the right security doubles so that parents do not worry. But they are also designed to ensure that we can find ways to involve parents. These defaults cannot change if you are under 16 without your parent being involved. And one of the basic things we try to settle is how to really make it easy for parents.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: It can be quite complicated and discouraging for parents.

Antigoni Davis: Yes, application stores have about 1.5 to 2 million applications. When you give your child a smartphone, these applications are now available. Therefore, it is extremely important to have this first line of defense. So I want to thank you very much for your efforts on this issue.

The meeting was also attended by Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou and State Minister Akis Skertsos.