Vice‑Chancellor and Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil has backed the demands of the SPD parliamentary group to ban social‑media use for children under the age of 14. “We can no longer ignore the clear rules and restrictions that the SPD proposal puts forward” Klingbeil told “Der Spiegel”. “The protection of young people from the flood of hate and violence on social media must be paramount”.
He criticised that platforms have systematically geared their business models toward maximizing attention, polarization and data extraction, often leaving children and teenagers defenseless. Klingbeil called on operators to safeguard users more effectively. “Those who do business in Europe bear the same responsibility for young people’s safety as they do for adults” he said. “Platforms must serve the people who use them-not the other way around”.
According to a position paper released by the SPD Bundestag faction on Sunday, the party seeks age‑tiered rules for social‑media use. The proposal would require providers to make their platforms technically unusable for users under 14. For teenagers up to 16 years old, operators would be obliged to launch a dedicated youth version that excludes algorithm‑driven feeds and recommendations, as well as personalized content delivery. Features such as endless scrolling, auto‑play of media, push notifications and gamification would be disallowed for this age group. The paper also stipulates that violations should lead to penalties.