Mark Zuckerberg's Meta supports Greece's proposal to establish digital adulthood

First of the big technology companies with a clear position in favor of the Greek proposal
This is the first of the big technology companies to take a clear position on this issue, supporting the Greek proposal at the European level, which aims to protect minors from harmful content and digital addiction. The Greek project is based on the idea of ​​automatic digital age verification of the young user, a solution already integrated into the Greek Kids Wallet application, with Meta stating that it accepts this age verification model horizontally in the EU.

Meta's public policy manager for Italy, Greece and Malta, Claudia Trivilino, specifically welcomed the role that Greece has taken on in the consultations that have taken place at the European level in recent months, in which both the Minister of Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his colleagues were directly involved.

"I am pleased that Greece is playing a leading role in the vital discussion between EU Member States and in the process leading to the non-paper "Protecting minors from online risks and harms". We support the call for the European Commission to implement mandatory, built-in age verification measures in the EU and recommend that they be widely implemented across all digital services used by teenagers, to ensure a safer online environment for everyone,” Ms. Trivilino said in a post on LinkedIn.

Ensuring that teenagers have safe experiences online
“We believe that the digital age of majority is an effective solution to ensure that teenagers have safe experiences online,” she added, adding that this decision by Meta is another “particularly important step” in the company’s efforts “to protect teenagers.”

Government officials stressed that the Greek proposal has gained ground thanks to the effort that has been made at the European level since the beginning of the year, that is, immediately after the presentation of the National Strategy for the Protection of Minors from Internet Addiction.

The dynamic of Greek positions was evident last month, when the European Commission’s Vice-President for Technology, Henna Virkunen, expressed Brussels’ intention to introduce a “mini wallet” with age verification capabilities this summer, along the lines of the Greek Kids Wallet, in order to “bridge” the gap until the European digital wallet is ready at the end of 2026.

The issue of protecting minors from risks in the internet age has been repeatedly raised as a priority by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has said that it is one of the “regulatory battles” that the EU must fight, while he also touched on it during his speech at the UN General Assembly last September.