Denmark to ban access to social media for anyone under 15, ratcheting up pressure on Big Tech platforms as concerns grow that kids are getting too swept up in a digitized world of harmful content and commercial interests.

Last month, Denmark’s minister for digital affairs Caroline Stage announced they had secured agreement to ban access to social media for anyone under 15.

Stage says the ban won’t take effect immediately - there’s still a consultation process and several readings in parliament before it becomes law. Perhaps by “mid to end of next year,” she says.

"In far too many years, we have given the social media platforms free play in the playing rooms of our children. There's been no limits,” says Stage.

“When we go into the city at night, there are bouncers who are checking the age of young people to make sure that no one underage gets into a party that they're not supposed to be in. In the digital world, we don't have any bouncers, and we definitely need that."

Danish officials are yet to share exactly how such a ban would be enforced.

But last month, Denmark’s digital affairs ministry unveiled plans for a “digital identity wallet” that will become available in spring 2026.

The app will have an age certificate to ensure users comply with social media age limits, the ministry said.

Many tech platforms already restrict pre-teens from signing up.

Yet Stage says around 98% of Danish children under age 13 have profiles on at least one social media platform, and almost half of those under 10 do.

“One thing is what they're saying and another thing is what they're doing or not doing,” she says. “And that's why we have to do something politically."

The Danish move would follow a “world-first” social media ban in Australia for children aged under 16-years-old.

From Wednesday (December 10), Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube will face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove accounts of Australian children younger than 16.

Danish school students Ronja Zander and Chloé Fjelstrup-Matthisen are both big social media users.

“I think it's not the youths' responsibility to make sure there's no bad stuff on the internet,” adds Fjelstrup-Matthisen.

Many governments have been grappling with ways of limiting harmful fallout from online technologies - Malaysia, France, Greece, Romania and New Zealand are also looking into setting a minimum age for social media.

"I think it's a good idea,” says Line Pedersen, from Nykøbing in Denmark.

“I think that we didn't really realise what we were doing when we gave our children the telephone and social media from when they were eight, ten years old, and I don't quite think that the young people know what's normal, what's not normal."

The EU’s Digital Services Act, which took effect two years ago, forbids children younger than 13 to hold accounts on social media like TikTok and Instagram, video-sharing platforms like YouTube and Twitch, and sites like Reddit and Discord, as well as AI companions.

Many social media platforms have for years banned anyone 13 or under from signing up for their services.

AP video shot by: James Brooks