The European Union wants to ban the Internet for youths who are 16 years old and under. The new EU data protection rules want youths not to enter social media such as Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat unless they get permission from their parents.
Naturally, these thoughts come in complete contrast to the business models of social media companies, which have focused on attracting new users of a certain age.
In particular, US technology teams have launched a frantic effort to pressure against the proposal, which is an amendment to the new data protection rules that has been submitted to Brussels for discussion since 2012.
The amendment specifically states that “the processing of data by a child under the age of 16 should be lawful only if there is consent or permission from the child's guardian”. This limit is already applied to ages of 13 and under.
According to an article in the Financial Times, companies will have to comply with this amendment as well as a host of new regulations or face large fines of up to 4 percent of global turnover, under the data protection proposals.
The negotiations concerning the «general regulation for data protection” are nearing their end, with a possible final round of talks between the European Parliament and the member states to take place on Tuesday, 15 December 2015. The final text of the new rules has not been agreed.
In reality, this amendment is more of a commitment to responsibility on the part of companies, since its physical implementation is considered unfeasible. In an Internet where everyone “builds” a second self and at the same time declares that they want to, it is very difficult to understand whether your interlocutor is 16 years old or 30 years old. You still can’t be sure if he is a man or a woman. Moreover, such a move is most likely to force young users to lie to companies when registering for various services.
