Spain has joined several European countries that have announced a ban on social media for those under 16.
"We will protect children from the digital Wild West," said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
According to the idea of the Sanchez government, this ban would be part of a series of changes that include the liability of company executives for "illegal or harmful content" on their platforms.
The proposal has yet to be adopted by parliament.
Spain thus joined France, Denmark and Austria, which had previously announced that they were considering their own national age limits.
The United Kingdom has launched a public debate on an identical measure.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he wants the ban on children under 15 to be in place by September, the start of the next school year.
Australia last year became the first country in the world to introduce a ban, and others monitor and evaluate the success of the measure.
Reacting to Sanchez's words, Elon Musk, the tech billionaire, he wrote on his social network X that the Spanish Prime Minister is a "real fascist totalitarian".
Companies that own social media and communication platforms argue that bans would be ineffective, difficult to enforce and could isolate vulnerable teenagers.
The same assessments were made in the case of Australia, and Reddit took a lawsuit against the Australian state to the High Court.
“Today, our children are exposed to a space they were never meant to navigate on their own,” Sanchez said, describing social media as a place of “addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation [and] violence.”
"We will not accept this anymore. We will protect them."
Sanchez first mentioned a possible ban in November, but now the plan has been fleshed out.
Under the changes, social media platforms would have to have effective age verification systems, "not just checkboxes, but real barriers that work," Sanchez explained.
He alluded to loopholes that Australian children use to bypass age checks, such as simply using a photo of an adult.
A new law in Spain would criminalize manipulating algorithms to amplify illegal content.
"It is something that was created, promoted and spread by certain actors that we will investigate, as well as platforms whose algorithms amplify disinformation in order to make money," Sanchez said.
"Hiding behind code and claiming that technology is neutral is no longer acceptable."
According to the Spanish government's plan, there would also be a new system designed to monitor "how digital platforms fuel division and amplify hatred."
No details were provided on how this would work.
Another measure, Sanchez said, would be “the investigation and prosecution of the crimes committed by Grok [artificial intelligence tool on the X network], TikTok and Instagram“.
The European Commission has launched an investigation into Grock over concerns that it was used to create sexualized images of real people.
The United Kingdom has announced its own investigation into Grok, and In France, on February 3, the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor's office raided the offices of the company X., investigating allegations of criminal acts, such as unlawful data extraction and complicity in possession of child pornography.
The X-Network has not yet responded to any of the investigations.
The BBC has contacted X for comment.
Musk previously characterized the French investigation as an "attack on free speech."
Watch video: Australian teenage girls react to social media ban
Sanchez said he hopes the laws will be passed next week.
However, this is not so certain because his left-wing coalition government does not have a parliamentary majority.
Spain's main opposition party, the conservative Popular Party, appears to approve of the government's plan, saying it has previously proposed similar restrictions.
However, the far-right Vox party has spoken out against the government's idea.
In response to the announcement, X network owner Elon Musk called Sanchez "a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain."
The BBC has contacted TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, Discord and Meta, which is owned by Facebook and Instagram, for comment.
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