The European Parliament has proposed setting a unified age limit for accessing social media platforms across the European Union. Under the plan, children could use social media from the age of 13 with parental consent and independently from the age of 16.

Justice and Digital Affairs Minister Liisa Pakosta (Eesti 200) said Estonia supports the European Commission's idea to convene an expert group to discuss how to reduce the negative effects of social media. However, Estonia does not back the idea of broadly restricting young people's access.

"Implementing a blanket age verification system, which would mean that absolutely everyone must prove and confirm their identity, is not the right approach. Young people can easily bypass it," Pakosta said.

Instead of introducing age-based restrictions, she believes the focus should be on ensuring that social media platforms comply with existing EU laws.

"We've imposed very clear and strict requirements on social media in Europe specifically to protect children and minors, but we don't see them being followed. What we really need is much stronger enforcement to make sure platforms take responsibility and fulfill their obligations to protect children's health and safety," said Pakosta.

Among Estonia's members of the European Parliament, Jüri Ratas (Isamaa) also voted against the idea. He said that restrictions on paper don't translate into real-world results.

"For any such regulation to be taken seriously, there needs to be a control mechanism — who enforces it, what the penalties or sanctions are. I think it's much more effective to focus on educating young people about the risks, through schools and parenting," Ratas said.

This week, Pakosta also responded to a parliamentary inquiry from nine Riigikogu members regarding the EU-level discussions on limiting youth access to social media. According to Madis Kallas (SDE), who initiated the inquiry, the minister's stance is cause for concern.

"In our view, the government and the responsible minister are not treating the issue seriously enough. We need new solutions and different forms of intervention. The current regulations have not improved the situation at all," Kallas said.

Pakosta warned that enforcing an age limit could lead to false positives. "For example, if a platform starts analyzing a user's behavior or language to guess their age, the results can be inaccurate. And we really don't want to see profiling of all users, especially not of children," she noted.

Kallas agreed that Estonia cannot take on tech giants alone, but said that enforcing such restrictions requires coordinated EU-wide action. "That doesn't mean Estonia couldn't be a leader or take the initiative. Together, I believe we can achieve something meaningful," he said.

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