Poland hopes to introduce measures blocking children from social media this year

Jan 5, 2026 | Law, Media

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Poland is working on tools that would require social media companies to verify the age of people seeking to use their services, and prevent underage users from doing so. It hopes to introduce the measures this year.

“Following the example of some other countries, Poland should introduce a regulation that cuts off young people aged under 16 from social media,” deputy digital affairs minister Dariusz Standerski told broadcaster Polsat News.

“This year we will have such tools, so I believe this year is the right time to introduce such a regulation,” added Standerski.

The deputy minister said that both Poland and the European Union more broadly have “neglected” regulation of social media over the last 15 years, resulting in a situation now where “many such portals are already beyond control”.

“We’re doing everything we can to catch up, but there are many challenges,” he added. “For example, this year we want to address age verification in social media and other portals, to introduce technical solutions that will protect young people from what lurks on social media.”

Asked for further details, Standerski said that such a tool would be used when someone was creating a social-media account. Instead of simply having to declare their age without verification, a window would appear asking the user to confirm their age.

Then, “a credential will be generated within our digital identity wallet, which will transmit only this single piece of information from the device: whether the user is over or under the age of 13 or 15”. This would be done “with the highest level of security”, he added.

 

Standerski noted that other EU countries are also testing such systems, and said that Poland is coordinating with them. The European Commission is also working on a harmonised system for online age verification across the bloc.

In November, the European Parliament adopted a report calling for an EU-wide minimum age of 16 for access to social media (though allowing 13- to 15-year-olds access with parental consent) and stronger measures to protect minors from online threats.

A survey conducted last year by Eurobarometer, an EU polling agency, found that 92% of Europeans favour “putting in place age assurance mechanisms to restrict age-inappropriate content”.

Last month, Australia became the first country to prohibit people aged under 16 from holding social media accounts. Platforms that fail to enforce the new rules face fines of up to A$49.5 million (€28.3 million).

A number of EU countries, including Italy and Greece, have said that they favour following the Australian model and introducing similar restrictions, reports Euronews.

In November, Denmark’s government announced plans to ban under-15s from social media, though said that it would take months to pass the relevant legislation. France is also planning to introduce similar legislation in early 2026.


Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Karola G/Pexels

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