Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre
Credit: NTB Kommunikasjon/Office of the Prime Minister
There are rules that are generally followed, rules that are followed sometimes and then rules that are clearly and blatantly ignored most of the time.
Many underage children have easy access to social media
Access to Social Media is a perfect example as many popular sites supposedly have a minimum age limit of 13 but just happen to have been designed to appeal to children.
The truth is that parents don’t police their children and you can take it as read that Social Media sites generally aren’t going to chase them up to check what their children are watching!
Norway wants to make minimum age access to social media higher
On Wednesday October 23, in a local interview, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre made it clear that Norway wants to up the age limit from 13 to 15 in order to protect children from access to harmful content and to keep them away from the giants of the technology sector.
Certainly it’s very praiseworthy but even if the Norwegian government amends the Data Protection act to put the rule into place, the big question is how it’s going to police it.
Between 53 and 72 per cent of children aged nine to 11 access social media
Euractiv has revealed that according to figures from the Norwegian Media Authority, 53 per cent of nine-year-olds, 58 per cent of 10-year-olds and no less than 72 per cent of 11-year-olds already use social media in Norway so whilst the concept may be right, it seems doomed from the start.
That is, unless there is a requirement to introduce a fool proof age verification process, not simply entry to a site where visitors just tick a box to indicate their age.
Norway knows what it wants to do about social media but doesn’t know how to do it
Whilst determined to take positive action, Norway hasn’t yet figured out what the ID should be used as not every 15-year-old has a bank account and the National Identity card is voluntary and it would therefore be difficult to insist that people use those unless the law is changed.
It rather looks as if Norway (which is not an EU member state) is hoping that as the EU progresses its programme of protection for children and teenagers online, that Norway as a member of Schengen will somehow manage to share whatever the EU comes up with.
In the meantime, the intent is clear but the method of achieving it is not.
