Explore the Charts

This table establishes the scale of the environment by mapping how deeply integrated social media has become in the daily lives of 15-year-olds across the European Union. 96% of 15-year-olds use social media on a typical weekday, with 37% spending more than 3 hours daily. Social media is no longer an optional activity but a near-universal digital environment for European youth.

Awareness that fundamental rights apply online is in a literacy recession across the EU, with only 59% of citizens cognizant of their digital legal standing — a 3-point decline year-over-year. A massive 43-point gap exists between the Netherlands (82%) and Bulgaria (39%), suggesting that social media intervention will face substantial enforcement challenges.

Most major social media platforms set their minimum age at 13, aligned with the US COPPA regulation. LinkedIn and WhatsApp require 16, while YouTube formally requires 18 (or 13 with parental consent). These self-imposed limits highlight the gap between platform policy and actual enforcement.

The data reveals a significant Consensus Gap between hardware restrictions and age-based platform access. While the generations are divided on whether smartphones belong in schools, they are remarkably united on the need to protect children under 14 from social media.

A significant mandate for restrictive social media legislation for children under 14. France leads with 80% support. The global average of 65% indicates an internationally recognised solution. Germany is the only country where disagreement (42%) outweighs agreement (40%), suggesting higher cultural value placed on digital autonomy.

Only 44% of EU citizens believe the EU protects digital rights well, while 41% believe it does not. With 12% not using the internet at all, any digital regulation faces a legitimacy gap where a large minority of the population does not feel adequately protected.

Parents with children in school are the most optimistic cohort (31%), but even among this group less than one-third believe the impact will be positive. Only a 3-percentage point difference between Gen Z (28%) and Boomers (25%) suggests that skepticism toward AI in the classroom is not a generational misunderstanding but a widely shared concern.

Public sentiment across the EU27 demonstrates an overwhelming mandate for regulatory intervention. Mental health risks emerge as the most critical concern, with 93% demanding public action, 67% categorising it as very urgent. Cyberbullying and age-assurance mechanisms are both viewed as urgent by 92% of the population.

This table tracks the feasibility and acceptance of various regulatory measures from the perspective of adolescents. 82% oppose mobile phone bans, but only 27% oppose collaborative rules, suggesting that co-governance approaches have significantly higher acceptance than top-down restrictions.

Overwhelming public support (83-89%) for proactive digital governance, with security, disinformation and AI ethics as top priorities. This creates a strong political mandate for child protection measures in the digital space.