Overview

• Union parliamentary leader Jens Spahn said the bloc is debating tighter youth protections and is considering a legal minimum age of 16 for social media.
• Spahn cited neuroscientists in comparing apps like TikTok and Instagram to heroin in how they activate the brain’s reward system and called bans a sharp tool used elsewhere to protect developing brains.
• Thuringia’s premier Mario Voigt backed restrictions under 16 and referenced a claim that one in five youths aged 10 to 14 has been asked by a stranger for a nude image via a fake account.
• Positions diverge across parties and within the Union, with CSU leader Markus Söder rejecting an age limit, Kanzleramtschef Thorsten Frei warning such rules are hard to enforce, and Greens leader Franziska Brantner supporting an under‑16 ban.
• No decision has been taken, as the debate unfolds alongside a coalition pledge to strengthen digital child protection and state moves to tighten smartphone use in schools.