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.

The 2024 data indicate a narrowing of the target demographic toward the pre-pubescent (3-13 years old) age group, which now accounts for 93.24% of all cases — an all-time high concentration of harm in the primary-school age bracket.

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.

Research consistently shows that the "Digital Divide" has shifted from access to usage patterns and duration. Children from low-income families spend roughly 40% longer on screens than middle-income peers and nearly double the time of children in affluent households. A 2024 Norwegian study found that lower-SES children spend an average of 364 minutes (over 6 hours) on the internet daily, compared to 260 minutes for high-SES peers.

This table highlights a critical divergence in how social media affects 15-year-old adolescents based on gender. Female adolescents are significantly more vulnerable both in terms of dosage (42% vs 32% high usage) and response (60% vs 35% depression symptoms, 65% vs 41% anxiety symptoms).

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.

The digital environment has reached a critical tipping point where the volume of child sexual abuse material has surged by 87% in three years, reaching 32 million global reports. Over half of global respondents experienced sexual harm online during their childhood.

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.