Overview
- The Bundestag Petitions Committee is holding a public hearing on a parents' petition seeking a nationwide 16-year minimum for social media use after the proposal drew more than 30,000 signatures.
- Parents' initiative SmarterStartAb14 is presenting the petition, arguing platforms deploy addictive designs and lack incentives to improve child protection.
- Lower Saxony education minister Julia Willie Hamburg calls for a 14-year threshold with effective age verification, citing school reports of children encountering violent, pornographic and extremist material.
- Studies referenced in the debate report heavy youth screen time and risky use, including OECD and Postbank data on daily hours online and DAK/UKE findings on media addiction indicators.
- The discussion is unfolding within a broader regulatory context, with related debates at EU level and Australia moving to enforce similar minimum-age measures.