Czechs support age restrictions on social media. They mostly suggest 15 years old as the limit.

Australia was the first country in the world to decide to restrict access to social media for children under the age of 16. This happened last December. In Europe, similar measures are currently being considered by Spain and France. Back in the fall of 2025, the European Parliament approved a non-binding recommendation for member states to introduce a minimum age limit of 16 for accessing social media. The resolution also includes a proposal that children aged 13–16 should only be allowed to use social media with their parents’ consent.

Czechia supports the age restriction, ideally from 15 years of age

In France, discussions are currently ongoing regarding setting the minimum age for accessing social media at 15. According to Czech citizens, this age would be most appropriate for the Czech Republic as well. This is according to a February survey by the NMS agency, which mapped the attitudes of the Czech public towards the European Union’s recommendation.

Nearly 9 out of 10 respondents agree that there should be an age restriction for access to social networks. The most frequently mentioned age limit is 15 (43%). Another 14% of respondents would even allow access to social networks only from the age of 18, i.e. the age of adulthood.

Support for the restrictions is consistent across the entire population, with no significant differences between age groups, gender, or education level. 86% of respondents agree with European Parliament’s recommendation.
In Slovakia, too, the European Parliament’s resolution has met with strong support, with 81% in favour of the proposal. However, Slovaks, like people in Czechia, would prefer to see the age limit set at 15.

Restrictions as protection of mental health and prevention of addiction

Czechs perceive age restrictions primarily as a tool for protecting children. Two-thirds of respondents (66%) believe that the age limit of 16 would protect children from inappropriate content. The same percentage of people also consider the restriction to be an important measure for preventing social media addiction.

„According to the 2022 international study The Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC), 8% of young people aged 11 to 15 fall into the risk category for social media use. Compared to 2018, this proportion has increased by three percentage points. Czechs therefore want to protect their children not only from cyberbullying or online predators, but two-thirds of them see the benefit of age limits in preventing addiction and protecting mental health,” adds Lucie Režná from NMS.

However, Czechs also mention among the benefits the protection of physical health and the ability to concentrate, which can be negatively affected by today’s short and fast videos on social media.

Czechs fear enforceability and social isolation

However, according to Czechs, introducing an age limit also brings a number of risks. The most frequently mentioned problem is the unenforceability of the restriction (52%) and its easy bypassing (57%). A quarter of respondents (24%) fear that children could move to even more dangerous online spaces outside the main social networks. The same concerns are also present in Slovakia.

Another 17% of respondents point to the risk of social isolation, as children could lose contact with their peers and be cut off from the pop culture world. Today those take place and is amplified primarily on social media.

Respondents also mentioned the risk of falling behind in digital literacy (16%) or limited access to creative and educational content (15%).

“Another risk mentioned by 16% of respondents is the potential threat to privacy during age verification. If verification were to be more than just a formality, the mechanism would have to be created to actually prove the user’s age, for example by scanning their ID. However, such a procedure would carry the risk of leakage or misuse of sensitive personal data,” comments Režná from NMS, adding: “There is currently no clear idea of how the entire age verification system should work in practice. Even in Australia, there is no uniform method of age verification; the law only provides recommendations on how platforms can verify age.”