Norway to raise social media age limit to 15 backed by age verification system

To safeguard children from harmful online content, Norway has announced plans to increase the age limit for social media use to 15.

The Norwegian government reportedly will also implement an age verification system to ensure compliance with the new rules. It is to be noted that the current minimum age limit to use social media in the Scandinavian country is 13, which is in line with the requirements of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat’s terms of service.

However, as per the country's media authority, more than half of nine-year-olds use social media.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said the new rules would also prevent tech companies from collecting personal data from under-15s, which would extend to firms like Netflix.

The government’s proposal will soon be submitted for consultation, with plans to pass it through parliament on priority.

To tackle cyberbullying, several European countries have been introducing bans on smartphones in schools.